I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Robinvale on Thursday 30 April at the Top End Café meeting with locals and visiting the Rural Life Museum celebrating Robinvale’s wonderful heritage, soldier settlement history, innovation and pioneering spirit.

The Robinvale community is vibrant, supported by the influx of the latest generation of migrants.  I’m impressed by the amazing Italian-origin produce in the shops, and while the source of migrants in Robinvale has changed, their contribution to community life continues to be strong.

The Nationals, in Coalition, are discussing migration’s future in Australia.  Robinvale has a high volume of workers who may not have arrived through a dedicated agricultural migration program. The Nationals are focussed on re-establishing the Coalition-era dedicated Agriculture Visa to get the focus right.

Labor consistently undermines our ‘Ag Visa’ push, even scotching the former Coalition government’s deal with Vietnam called the ‘Vietnam Labour Mobility Arrangement’ (VLMA).  At last check, nobody has arrived in Robinvale under the VLMA.  I have advocated about this topic in Parliament and to the Minister, with - so far – sadly little progress.

Robinvale and Australia need a migration system that offers the right visas to bring the right skills to the right areas.  Under Labor, we have a very loose, so-called ‘demand driven’ system where the purpose of the migrants - and their belief in Australian values - are not a priority.

People who arrived on other visas and found their way to Robinvale - one way or another – results in a disorganised situation that is open to abuse.   We need a dedicated Ag Visa pathway to meet our local workforce needs.

My focus on Robinvale is why I brought the then Shadow Trade Minister to the region late last year, and a parliamentary migration inquiry here in April 2023.

The challenges facing our farmers are significant, and so I have invited the Leader of The Nationals, Matt Canavan, and Shadow Agriculture Minister, Darren Chester to St Arnaud on 21 May 2026 for a farmers’ rights forum.  I would love to see Robinvale locals there so their concerns can be heard, contact me on anne.webster.mp@aph.gov.au for more information.