Friday 13 November 2026

The Albanese Labor Government has yet again demonstrated its incompetence in government, economic illiteracy and utter inability to comprehend regional Australia with another policy backflip, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster said on Friday.

Reports this morning indicate the Home Affairs Minister is backtracking on his backpacker cuts, after The Nationals led the outcry when Labor made draconian cuts on the cusp of the hay baling season and harvest.

Dr Webster has led national advocacy on behalf of farmers to ensure the crops and hay could be brought in, while The Nationals have been very vocal about the impact Labor’s migration cuts were having on the regional tourism sector leading up to the busy summer holiday season.

“Time and time again, Labor shows how they cannot govern, do not understand the economy, and have one lever – to tax more, to fulfil their political objectives until they are thrown out of office,” Dr Webster said.

“We’ve seen the catastrophic impact of Labor’s parasitic behaviour on the economy here in Victoria where we hope, on November 28th, they are banished from office for a long time.

“I make no apology for going in very hard for our farmers and agricultural contractors who approached me shocked that visa processing had shrunk from less than a week, to months, for working holiday makers visa to be processed whom farmers rely on to drive their harvesters and huge machinery.

“Not only were Labor very slow to react, they are so incompetent they tried to shoehorn a non-government body, the National Farmers Federation and its member bodies like the Victorian Farmers Federation, into the process as some form of vetting arrangement. It was unfair to the farming bodies, and unfair to farmers.  It just shows how Labor has no clue about agriculture and regional Australia.”

In August the Albanese Government attempted to reduce Australia’s Net Overseas Migration (NOM) figure by slowing backpacker visa processing from the previously advertised one-week turnaround, to a so-called ‘normalised’ 3 months.

In September, the Home Affairs Minister announced at the National Press Club cuts to total backpacker numbers including a limit on third-year returning backpackers to just 5,000 per year.  The Press Club address came after it had been delayed by a month after previous internal Labor Party pressure to revise whatever had been scheduled for announcement.

Dr Webster has challenged why backpackers are being counted in the NOM in the first place.

Reports on 13 November indicate the Minister is now looking to revise the 5,000 third-year limit upward to 22,500.  On average the intake on that program has been over 30,000 per annum.

This latest Labor policy backflip on backpackers follows a growing number in recent, times, from the botched attempt to sell Defence properties, to capital gains tax, unrealised capital gains, FOI reforms and ATO credit card payments.

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