Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, , 7:04:23 to 7:10:25
Senator Hanson raises concerns regarding visa processing delays for PALM scheme workers in Tasmania, resulting in financial losses for farmers, while officials clarify the role of labor hire companies in these specific instances.
Topics: Agricultural productivity, Employment
Speakers: Senator Pauline Hanson, Hon Murray Watt, Michael Willard, Tiali Goodchild
Thank you very much. Minister, you advocated before that you encourage farmers to go for palm scheme workers. Is that the case?
I I think yeah, I I would certainly encourage farmers to make use of the palm scheme as thousands of farmers already do.
Right. Um I was in Tasmania last week, and apparently the farmers there were depending on palm scheme workers, approximately 150 that were applied for for their visas to arrive out on the 22nd of October. Their visas weren't processed, were not able to come out. That then, the process, because there was complaints to the department, have now said they won't be able to arrive till November the 10th. The farmers have now out of pocket for 10,000 for flights. No recompense. No reimbursement for that cost. Apparently this has been happening quite a bit. That the process is not being dealt with. They have not visas are not being issued on time. And are the farmers who haven't have their fruit picked is not the case and are going to lose a lot of it. Can you explain why the hold-up, why visa turnaround is taking weeks? It's been extended, processing these visas, and the farmers are not getting the workers that they've been promised.
Well, I mean, obviously I don't know any of the circumstances of that case. Um the I think the only thing that this department would be able to shed any light on is visa arrangements. The Palm scheme is administered by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Um more general issues about using the Palm scheme in that case would need to be put to them. It might be that some of the officials here can help you on the visa issue. I doubt they'd have individual I mean, we don't I don't even know which farmer you're talking about, but farmers around from the North West Coast,
around Burney, Alvaston, around that area.
Well, with respect, there's a lot of farms in that area.
I mean, Minister, in general, this is what I'm saying to you, is they are not getting their workers. It wasn't only that, it was a tourist industry as well. It's been brought to my attention that they've put in for for workers coming from overseas, they are not getting their visas processed in time, and they cannot book these tours and have them out for Christmas time and height of tourist season because there's been a hold-up in visa applications. Now I'm just wondering, is this because um the department is trying to cut back on the numbers coming into the country?
Far from far from it.
To make your figures look good.
No, far from it. I've I've encouraged and other members of the government have encouraged people to make more use of the palm scheme. So we'd be hardly trying to stop people coming in. I'm not sure. Have you have you raised this concern with the Department or the Minister's Office already?
Yes, it has. Last week. That's why they weren't going to be out until November the 20th. Now they've processed it to meet November the 10th.
Okay.
And that also has been from a complaint from one of your own lower house members of Parliament who also put in a complaint to the department.
Okay. Well, if again, if there's any officials here who have any information on that, obviously I'm happy for them to share that. What I would say is that if there's things that can be done to assist that particular farmer, we we should do so. But right now, right now, can I finish? Right now, there are tens of thousands of palm workers working on farms in abattoirs and elsewhere around the country. So it may well be the case that there's been a problem in that instance. Um that doesn't mean that the program is a problem overall. It's actually supporting farmers to stay afloat right across the country.
Minister, I said there's been a $10,000 out-of-pocket. Would you consider the Department of reimbursing for those for those flights that were booked and paid for? But due to the Department, your failure to process those visas that were put in months beforehand that they are out of pocket, plus other businesses there accommodation as well.
Um I think Ms. Goodchild might have some information about that. I think or Mr. Willard.
Senator, I don't uh have any information on that specific instance you've mentioned, but I thought it might be useful to give you some figures around the palm scheme more generally. So there's around 32,000 palm visa holders in Australia at the moment. Uh last year we granted 26,389 visas in terms of processing times, 75% of those were processed within 14 days. Uh, because I don't know the specific details of of the case you raised. I I can only speculate as to why they might be taking longer. There can be a range of reasons to do with health checks or other checks that we need to do that can delay processing. Uh we do generally give advice not to book uh make arrangements or book tickets before the visa is granted. Uh but if there are specifics in respect of that case that that um that you've provided to the office, uh we'd be happy to look into the specifics.
Thank you, Will.
We do we actually do have a little bit of information about this specific case. We're just Ms. Goodchild knows something about this.
So Senator, as Mr. Willard said, we are processing Palm visas quite quickly. The particular cases that you mentioned that did get escalated to us, we did resolve. But there was actually, in fact, another issue that related to the Labour hire company. So I think your questions are in fact for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, because it was not a delay with the visa processing.