Words cannot express how livid I am that - yet again - the Albanese Labor Government are treating farmers and our food security like a political plaything.  The broadacre harvest is upon us, yet Labor has stranded between 30 to 50 per cent of the skilled workforce needed to get the crop in.  It is beyond condemnation.

A few weeks ago, I visited the southwestern part of Mallee where crops are magnificent, resplendent in green and gold – but farmers came to my mobile offices saying, our 417 visa applications have been outstanding for weeks.  Usually it takes 1-3 days.  I spent this last fortnight in Canberra fighting every day to call out the Immigration Minister’s disgraceful attack on regional Australia.  On Monday, The Nationals declared we would not cut ‘working holiday visas’ for regional Australia.  The same day I seconded and spoke on a motion by The Nationals’ Shadow Agriculture Minister calling out Labor’s betrayal of farmers.  

With harvest just weeks away, and a Departmental website advertising usual processing times within a week, farmers have been waiting weeks – if not months – for their workers to come in.  Skilled harvester and other machinery operators from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada who travel the world from harvest to harvest running multi-million dollar machinery have had Labor slam the door in their faces.  The cost is catastrophic – delayed harvests mean ruined crops, or lost income, or – God forbid – farmers left to work around the clock, their eyeballs hanging out, and finding it impossible to be calm, safe and mentally well.  

Regional Australia depends on farming for its primary income, and our food security is at risk.  Just this week I heard that over 60 per cent of the seafood we eat is now imported – yet Australia has the 3rd largest maritime jurisdiction in the world.  Labor are so busy appeasing those that want to turn off our economic and food security, they are turning us into a nation that has to beg when we have all the resources we need to be self-sufficient.  For the sake of our regional communities, I won’t be silenced on calling out skulduggery.