Ongoing bad policy by the Albanese Labor Government is crippling agricultural workforce and is yet another example of Labor’s war on productivity, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster says.

Looming 25 per cent visa fee rises and changes to UK backpacker rules to remove the 88-day regional work incentive from July 1, takes away critical labour for farmers.

“A National Farmers Federation survey shows more than 60 per cent of farmers see the removal of the 88-day regional work incentive as catastrophic,” Dr Webster said.

“’Catastrophic’ sums up Labor’s approach to agriculture and workforce policies – they simply do not care about the farmers who feed and clothe the nation and the world. Labor continues to deliver radical Industrial Relations (IR) changes for their union masters, without any thought of the consequences in the regions.”

Dr Webster said backpackers were crucial for farm productivity, with statistics showing a drop of 11 per cent in the number of PALM workers employed in agriculture in the six months to January 2024.

“Farmers are struggling to find workers for sowing, harvesting and getting fruit off the vine. Labor have set up roadblock after roadblock,” Dr Webster said. “The Albanese Government scrapped The Nationals’ Ag Visa when they took Government, only reluctantly upholding a MOU with Vietnam to grant workers visas and delaying their arrival until later this year. Instead, Labor have been focussed on bowing to their Union paymasters through productivity-crushing Industrial Relations laws.”

Labor’s IR laws will apply from 26 August for all businesses, with the Right to Disconnect provisions coming into effect from August 2025 for small businesses.

“Labor have added more red tape and confusion to employing casual workers, are threatening bosses for contacting workers out of hours through their Right to Disconnect shambles, abolished piece rates for fruit picking and installed ‘same job same pay’ restrictions that discourage work ethic, and of course the 30 hour week pay for workers when there is no work. ” Dr Webster said.

“Productivity has also been hammered by Labor’s policies hiking the cost of production. Labor broke the gas market, particularly in Victoria where state Labor have banned new gas exploration and connections. Labor failed to deliver the price relief on energy bills they promised, dithered as the nickel industry collapsed, introduced a carbon tax, have funded anti-development activists and created overly restrictive environmental regulations on top of their archaic IR Laws.

“Labor are crippling farmers and Mallee businesses alike, dragging down Australian productivity and competitiveness.”