I am livid that - yet again - the Albanese Labor Government are treating farmers and our food security like a political football.  The broadacre harvest is upon us, yet Labor has stranded up to 50 per cent of the skilled workforce needed to get the crop in.

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, their 417 visa applications have been outstanding for weeks.  Usually it takes 1-3 days.  I spent the recent sitting fortnight in Canberra fighting every day to call out the Immigration Minister’s disgraceful attack on regional Australia.  I have over 50 visa cases now in with the Immigration Minister. The Nationals have declared we would not cut ‘working holiday’ 417 visas for regional Australia.  On Monday 7 September I seconded and spoke on a motion by The Nationals’ Shadow Agriculture Minister calling out Labor’s betrayal of farmers.

With harvest upon us, and a Departmental website advertising usual processing times within a week, farmers have waited weeks – if not months – for workers to come in.  Skilled harvester and other machinery operators from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada travel the world from harvest to harvest running multi-million dollar machinery  – Labor has slammed 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, risking their safety and wellbeing.

Labor weren’t content pulling the rug out from under the current harvest. On Thursday 17 September, Minister Burke put the handbrake on future harvests, imposing random ballots on 417 visas to choose who returns to Australia for subsequent harvests.  New caps also mean – on current numbers – 1 in 4 workers won’t be able to come back a second year, and 5 out of 6 cannot return a third year.

I am proud to have stood in Canberra last week with the Leader of The Nationals and Leader of the Opposition calling out Labor’s agricultural illiteracy and bloody mindedness. Make no mistake, this is political. Regional Australia deserves better.