Labor pushes to boost Pacific workers as Joyce says some Australians ‘bung lazy’

Labor is telling regional businesses to boost their workforces with Pacific migrants as it fights complaints from One Nation and industries who warn their operations will be crippled under government plans to cut thousands of working holidaymakers.

Barnaby Joyce on Monday insisted that backpackers should be quarantined from cuts under Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s migration changes since they worked jobs that Australians would not perform.

“There are a lot of jobs that just cannot be filled with Australians because … they’ve basically risen above the bottom level. Or they’re just bung lazy and are not capable of work,” he said.

The fight over working holidaymakers began when Labor quietly paused visa processing in August and escalated this month when Burke unveiled his plan to cut second and third year visas by 38,000 places.

Young foreigners must complete three months of regional work to qualify for their second visa, and six months for their third, although British backpackers are exempt.

The new lottery system for those who want to stay in Australia longer is one way Burke will reduce Australia’s annual migrant intake as Labor comes under public and political pressure to deliver on lower targets.

Working holidaymaker numbers have climbed to record highs over the past three years and made up 17.5 per cent of the net migration intake in 2024-25.

However, the plan has prompted backlash from tourism, accommodation, commerce and farming peak bodies who say Labor’s plans will deter young people from working in the regions, compromise $1.65 billion in visitor spending and cost 11,000 regional Australian jobs.

“The uncertainty created by the ballot is a massive disincentive for backpackers to travel and work in regional Australia,” said Australian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Erin McLeod.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, questioned about the impact on industry on Monday, conceded that construction, the care sector and seasonal parts of the economy were facing worker shortages.

However, he insisted that Burke’s plan had the balance right. “We’re managing the migration system in the most responsible way that we can,” he said.

“There will continue to be a role for backpackers, for working holidaymakers in the [agriculture] sector and elsewhere. There is, I think, more potential in the PALM Scheme as well for Pacific Island workers.”

About 30,000 Pacific Islanders work in regional Australia under the PALM scheme, which remains demand-driven, but some businesses have preferred to employ backpackers because the PALM scheme is more tightly regulated.

Burke has also told farmers complaining about worker shortages that they should turn to the PALM scheme, which is mainly geared towards filling gaps in agriculture and meatworks but also covers tourism, hospitality and aged care.

“We have the Pacific Workers Scheme, which is there and waiting,” he said this month. “If they’re [farmers] willing to use the Pacific workers, then everything that they want picked, every job they want done, is completely there and able to be done.”

Joyce on Monday said that Labor should be focused on “visa factories” such as universities – not seasonal workers such as working backpackers and Pacific workers.

“These people are [in] demand-driven regional areas and give great benefit to our economy. In fact, they’re essential, and you don’t have to change net migration by changing those numbers,” he said on News24.

Joyce said the minor party would be able to achieve its own migration plan without touching the 225,000 backpackers who were in the country as of June.

After months of confusion over One Nation’s migration policy, Pauline Hanson’s party is saying it would deliver negative migration levels for three years before steadying the annual net intake at 130,000 people, compared to Labor’s 225,000.

“You’re going to have an awful lot of people going out, so you still have the capacity for those who need to come in,” Joyce said.

Coalition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam rubbished Joyce’s claim. “I don’t know how you can say you’re going to bring a number down to net zero effectively and say that there will be an entire cohort of visa applicants that will be uncapped,” he said.

Still, he said the Coalition would seek to “preserve as much of that [working holidaymaker] cohort as possible” as it finalised its own immigration policy over the next two weeks. The Nationals have also railed against cuts to backpackers in regional jobs.

Duniam said the biggest problem with working holidaymakers was the ballooning numbers of UK migrants who have arrived in droves since a Morrison-era free trade agreement waived the requirement for regional work.

“You had this massive growth in the number of British backpackers coming to our cities, predominantly not going into the regions and not contributing in the way the scheme was designed,” Duniam said.

“So that is something that we’ve had to factor into our policy, and we want to make sure we get the balance right.”

He said processing times for visas were a problem. “You’ve got fruit growers on their knees, you’ve got hospitality businesses not far behind them. This is another part of what needs to be addressed in a good comprehensive policy.”

Burke this month said the department had started processing visas at a faster pace again.

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