AG VISA A WIN FOR THE REGIONS

Farmers across the Riverina and Central West will greatly benefit from the newly announced Agricultural Worker Visa, Riverina MP Michael McCormack says.

The Federal Government has delivered a vital agriculture visa to help secure the future of rural and regional Australia.

The visa will provide a long term and reliable workforce for our critical industries.

Mr McCormack said the Agriculture Minister David Litttleproud and he had agreed on an Agricultural Visa with the Prime Minister in June and was pleased to see it implemented.

“The Agricultural Worker Visa delivers on the Federal Government’s commitment to best support our food and fibre producers,” Mr McCormack said.

“It will be open to a range of countries for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers and will include the meat processing, fisheries and forestry sectors.

“We grow the very best food and fibre in the Riverina and Central West and I am delighted to have played a key role in developing this important outcome for primary producers.

“Farmers in the region have already started to put the call out for farm hands and harvest workers and this visa has come at the right time to fill those available roles.

“It is important our farmers have the confidence to plant a crop and know they will have access to a reliable workforce to assist during harvest, and this visa will deliver just that.

“The Agricultural Worker Visa will help to steady the agriculture sector as we build it to a $100 billion industry by 2030.”

The program will be operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, building on the strong outcomes from Pacific labour mobility programs.

The Government will immediately widen industry consultations to meet needs across the agricultural sector.

The Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Home Affairs and Agriculture, Water and the Environment will design the visa to ensure a high degree of integrity and safeguards for workers.

Regulations to enable the creation of the Agriculture Visa will be in place by the end of September 2021. Operation of the visa will depend on negotiations with partner countries.

The Government’s primary and growing method for meeting agricultural workforce shortages are the existing Seasonal Worker Programme and Pacific Labour Scheme. The new visa program will build on these.

Between now and March 2022, the number of Pacific and Timorese workers in Australia will double to more than 24,000. These workers are highly valued by Australian industry and are critical to Australia’s horticultural and meat processing sectors, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additional information, including how to apply and when, will be available once industry consultation concludes.