The Labor party has announced ahead of the election that they plan to scrap the Agricultural Visa, if elected, in favour of supporting the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme).

The Australian Agriculture Visa Program was developed late last year to address workforce shortages by providing another stream of entry and temporary stay for workers across primary industry sectors.

Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy expressed his concerns earlier this year for the agricultural visa, which he told ABC Pacific Beat could threaten the Seasonal Worker Programme and the Pacific Labour Scheme. 

“This visa won’t have the protections that the Seasonal Worker Programme has. That means that farmers, particularly unscrupulous farmers, are going to choose to source labour from the agricultural visa countries rather than using the Seasonal Worker Programme,” Mr Conroy said.

“So that will lead to exploitation of people from ASEAN countries, and will deny that huge economic opportunity for Pacific workers,” he said. 

National Farmers Federation CEO Tony Mahar described the recent announcement as "heartbreaking".

“The NFF and our members advocated for an Ag Visa for more than five years. The Australian Labor Party had a chance to demonstrate it had listened to farmers and was committed to a bright future for agriculture by backing the Ag Visa,” Mr Mahar said. 

The NFF has campaigned for the Visa since 2016 to cater for low skilled to highly skilled farm workers from countries further afield than the Pacific. 

“The lived experience of farmers across agriculture shows the PALM schemes, as effective as they are, do not adequately address farmer’s workforce requirements,” Mr Mahar said. 

The announcement from Labor included plans to reform the PALM scheme to increase attractiveness, including making it easier for Pacific workers and more cost effective for farmers. 

While currently farmers carry the upfront travel costs under the Seasonal Worker Program, Mr Conroy announced that the Federal Government will instead meet these costs. 

The reform will also include the option for Pacific workers to bring family members to live and work in Australia. 

Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said the reform won't address the worker need of the sector. 

“It will restrict the workers that farmers can have access to and will mean farmers will need to restrict what they can produce,” Mr Littleproud said. 

Mr Conroy said that more safeguards are needed to match the safety of the PALM programs to avoid worker exploitation.