STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BLEYER (Tasmania) (13:46): In Australia, plenty of people like to buy a lotto ticket. But would you buy a lotto ticket for $1,000 when your chance of winning is slim to none? That's what this federal Labor government is doing to our backpackers—making them pay $1,000 to go into a lotto, where they hope that they'll be pulled out of the ballot box to have the right to remain in Australia for one year to support our tourism and agricultural businesses.

That's what this Labor government is doing to drive down the rate of backpackers. But what it is actually doing is driving down the number of our small businesses in this country. Tasmania is 16 times more reliant on backpackers than other places in Australia, to support our tourism industry and our agricultural industry.

As our national GrainGrowers organisation, who are here in parliament today, will tell us, our farmers depend on seasonal workers. They depend on backpackers to produce the food that we depend on. Labor will soon bring about its cuts to backpackers based on the vibes of migration rather than the vibes of our businesses.

Our businesses and the value of them are more important to the vibe on migration. Our small businesses and our farmers will be confronted with closing their doors, and this federal Labor government will be complicit in small businesses and our farmers no longer being able to serve or feed us. (Time expired)