Thursday 17 September 2026

Labor’s changes on Thursday to the working holiday maker system will destroy regional communities and create enormous panic across farming communities, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster said today.

As broadacre farmers hit the panic button on delayed workers for imminent hay and canola harvests, Dr Webster said she is extremely concerned Minister Burke declared on Thursday that the vital working holiday maker program (417 visa) will soon be further restricted through a ballot system.

Minister Burke told the National Press Club that in the last reporting year 57,000 people were on second-year 417 visas, and 31,000 on third-year visas.  The Minister announced he was bringing in a new ballot system for the second-year, capped at 45,000, and capped at just 5,000 in the third year.  

“Labor also clearly have no clue that broadacre farmers and harvesting contractors regularly bring back the same experienced people from countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada and because they know the machinery, understand the work and can be trusted during the most important weeks of the farming year. You can’t put inexperienced operators in that equipment.  A ballot flies in the face of bringing that skilled labour back year after year.”

“The harvest workforce in broadacre and horticulture farming is made up to 50 per cent working holiday makers.  Now under Labor, one in four visa applicants will miss out on their second-year applications, and a staggering five in six will miss out in year three. This is a horrendous outcome and much worse than anything we could have expected.” Dr Webster said.

“Labor has allowed net overseas migration (NOM) to run out of control, and while they pull the rug out on the imminent hay, canola, wheat and barley harvests, Labor are now also pulling the handbrake on producing Australia’s food and fibre in future.”

“Farmers and harvest contractors tell me workers they expected to arrive have not arrived, due to unexplained processing delays. Despite the Department advertising that most applications would be resolved within a week, some have been waiting months. Crops need to be harvested, cows need to be milked, and Labor’s utter regional illiteracy means the workload is being pushed onto fewer people, creating serious farm and harvest safety issues.”

“The government is yet again targeting regional Australia to cover for Labor’s policy failures, in this instance, their uncontrolled migration disaster.”

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