Shadow Minister for Regional Health, Shadow Minister for Regional Communications - Member for Mallee - Transcript - Interview with Gary Hardgrave 4BC Mornings Brisbane - Monday 28 September 2026

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‍DR ANNE WEBSTER MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL HEALTH
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

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TOPICS: spring harvest, border security, residency for illegal maritime arrivals, working holiday makers and tourism, productivity, net overseas migration

Hardgrave

You're listening to Mornings with Gary Hargrave on Brisbane's 4BC. At 24 to 10, look, as a former minister in the migration space, when Philip Ruddock and I were running the Immigration Department 25 years ago, very conscious of the fact that people in regional Australia needed backpackers and itinerant workers, however you want to express it, they brought in this Pacific Islands Labour Scheme to try and allow people from the Pacific Islands to come and do stuff that we couldn't get hands on the ground to do. In fact, I remember being in the great community of Mildura in Western Victoria. It's so far west, it's almost in Adelaide. The Sunraysia area where they grow a hell of a lot of fruit, huge amounts of fruit. Talking to some people there and they said, Minister, we need a visa for... Child minding. I said, why is that? I said, because every time we hire a child minder here, they end up going out and picking the fruit which is what the parents of the kids they were trying to mind are doing. Fruit picking was well paid. So I said, well, pay your child minders the same price as your fruit pickers. But that story aside, farmers right across regional Australia are gearing up for harvest right now, but they don't have the hands on deck. So I'm absolutely furious the Albanese government has decided to grant permanent visas, this is a pathway to citizenship, to 30,000 people who arrived here illegally by boat. This is after the Howard government left. The Rudd government came in. They went soft on borders. The Gillard government were soft on borders. People like Chris Bowen, they were the ministers for immigration, home affairs. They went soft. They let 30,000 people crash ashore illegally by boat into Australia. They hated the Liberals. They hated the Nationals. They love the Labor Party. And they've all now been given... permanent Vsett. We need people to pick fruit. But people who've come here to live in our cities, choke our roads... arriving here legally by boat are getting... The visas, this is wrong. It's far higher than the original estimates. They've quietly done this. And I just think this raises huge questions about the government's migration priorities. Back in the days when I was there, a bloke called John Forrest was a member for Mallee. His successor, Dr Anne Webster, is the Shadow Minister for Regional Health and Communications and the federal member of the great seat of Mallee. Anne, it's great to talk you. Thank you for your time.

Webster

Thank you, Gary, and you were talking about the golden era when you and Philip Ruddock had things under control, not what we have right now.

Hardgrave

We were talking to people saying, what do you want out of your migration system? How do we nation build? - as Philip Ruddock's new book is called, Nation Building. We're not doing nationbuilding here, where now finding new Labor voters seems to be the priority. Your electorate needs people to help you pick fruit for a start.

Webster

Well look that's true and PALM workers and of course the Nationals have the ag visa which is It's another whole story on the backburner, but my expectation is that we'll bring that forward. What we're dealing with right now is, as you say, and it's the same in Queensland, there are massive broadacre cropping harvests that need to take off, and I have farmers beating my door down, begging for the government to open up working holidaymakers at our makers, these are processing on the go-slow. So, he put the brakes on just at the time when our broadacre farmers are saying, well, where's our guy from Canada and the UK and Ireland, they come across, they do the Northern Hemisphere broadacre cropping and then they come down and they do the harvest in Australia. They know the equipment, it's multi-million dollar pieces of equipment we're talking about here and Tony Burke decided to put the brakes on. I mean it's unbelievable frankly - and then now he's suggesting that we should drop the working holidaymakers in year three down to 5,000 and in a ballot system. So there's no certainty for our farmers who know the people we're bringing in because they come in year on year, and it works for those particular areas harvest workers and it works for Australian farmers. It's a really neat system and yeah, Labor are doing Labor things as they do and letting in and giving permanent residency to illegal arrivals from the Gillard-Rudd period. It's honestly a disgrace and that's just come up in the news today.

Hardgrave

That's why I'm angry about it because look, I know a lot of people have come here legitimately as refugees, gone through the system, waited the approvals, met the to health security checks, all of these things. And I do understand that if you've been here, as they have, and people who crashed ashore, for a decade, they kind of feel at home in Australia. But they're on our roads. They're choking our streets in the cities. They came here, they broke the law to get here, and now we're rewarding them with what they wanted. And they probably along the way cost us millions of dollars collectively in courts fighting their appeal after appeal if we've tried to punt them. There's something so wrong with this. We can't let it go quiet.

Webster

No, absolutely. We cannot let it go quiet. And the worst thing is that if the Labor government thinks that has not given a green green light to people smugglers, again, they're just not thinking. They're not thinking strategically. They're not thinking about the wider picture of what's happening in migration in Australia. Look, we know Australia is a migration nation. We welcome them for our tourism industries, again, working holidaymakers. And look at the damage that Labor in Queensland, as my colleagues Matt Canavan and David Littleproud have been talking about as well. But in the harvest sector, Australians don't want to do those jobs and we desperately need those workers in Australia now. Not in a month's time. It's too late in a month's time. Labor keep ... they prattle on about productivity. They don't have a clue. They do not have a clue about productivity and how to get systems rolling and moving and being efficient and being able to, as you say, nationbuild.

Hardgrave

So just go back to your comment. I found it fascinating. We actually have a circuit of people who work in Canada, work in the Northern Hemisphere when they need to, produce Australian grown fruit and veggies. We don't need to import stuff from overseas. And yet we're going to end up in a position potentially where farmers in general are going to be ploughing stuff into the fields rather than putting them up for sale. This is insane. We need these competent people coming here as they have in the past.

Webster

Absolutely we do and I definitely have farmers who are really concerned. I've even got dairy farmers who are saying to me that they're now working 20 hour days. That is not sustainable and having family members come in and assist them. You can't do that with broad acre farming - how it works, so these are skilled people who come in from, as I said, Canada, Ireland, UK, and they come out and do their work. And we desperately need them both in Queensland, obviously New South Wales where they brought acre cropping as well, and down in Victoria, where I am. So Labor has failed. They have failed the test of leadership once again. And Tony Burke are enacting ... and to have this come out that they have given permanent residency now under the failure of Andrew Giles, when he was immigration minister and under Tony Burke himself to 30,000 while we're not allowing working holidaymakers in as though they make a difference to net overseas migration. The difference that working holidaymakers make to that number which labourers are worried about being another headline is minimal compared to what they have just allowed to take place.

Hardgrave

But it's sneaky they've done it on the quiet we found out about it now these are 30,000 people Western Sydney, they're all going to be to be committed to vote for the party that allowed them to sneak in, one, and because they were soft on borders, two, and giving them permanent residence. These are now 30,000 lifelong, always committed, always vote Labor types. And that's fine, they're allowed to have a view, but it's how they got here Anne, it's always how it was done that's the problem with these things.

Webster

Exactly. Absolutely, exactly and, you know, we have legal processes to become a citizen or a permanent resident of Australia. People need to do the right thing because you know as John Howard famously said we should decide ... and Tony Abbott ... we should decide who comes to our land and who gets to stay here. That is the right of a sovereign nation. And what Labor have done is just said, well, he's open slather. And by the way, anyone else thinking of doing that, well, you know, it's A-OK. Well, you'll end up with permanent residency eventually if we're in power.

Hardgrave

Yeah, the green light's out there. The word is out there. And look, you know, Anne, here's the story. We have always decided who comes to Australia and the terms under which they come. Because as you say... It's what a sovereign nation does. Look, I've got to tell you, can I just share this very quickly? This is live radio, but I'm going to share it with you. It's the only time in my life that I had a suckling pig presented to me was in Mildura with the Pacific Labor workers there

Webster

(laughs)

Hardgrave

...deciding, oh, here's the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. These people out of the Pacific Islands will give you a suckling pig glaze with an apple in it - might have been a locally locally grown apple - I was not able to eat that because I just couldn't look at the eyes of the little piglet. I just wanted to share that with you. I just wanted to share it. It's a a great community you represent. That's all I know. Great community.

Webster

It absolutely is. I've had a similar experience, but it was in the Philippines in a backyard ...

Hardgrave

(laughs)

Webster

... so, I reckon yours was probably cleaner.

Hardgrave

It probably was. Anyway, my best to you, Anne. Nice to talk with you. Dr Anne Webster, federal member for Mallee. She's a shadow minister for health and regional health and communications. Look, it is a serious issue. When people who want to get stuff done can't get stuff done because people like Tony Burke Burke are more worried about the politics of it all. Crazy stuff.

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