MPs talk PALM scheme and buybacks

The visit was just one stop in a day of meetings with dairy farmers, orchardists, irrigation leaders and the Greater Shepparton City Council.

Mr McNab said workers from Samoa had become an essential part of his harvest operation, describing the arrangement as mutually beneficial for both his property and the workers’ home communities.

“It’s a mutually beneficial situation, it’s a great opportunity for them to come and earn money for their families,” he said.

“It’s been a really good program for us.”

Mr McCormack said minimum engagement requirements introduced by Labor had driven farmers away from the scheme, leaving Pacific workers without the employment opportunities the program was designed to provide.

Current minimum engagement rules require PALM scheme employers to offer workers a minimum of 120 hours of work reconciled over four weeks.

Mr McCormack accused the government of using “sledgehammer tactics” to effectively unionise what had been a successful arrangement.

Mr Birrell said the changes had come at a real cost to growers in the Nicholls electorate, arguing the scheme needed stability rather than further interference.

Mr McCormack said that a Coalition government would prioritise consultation with both PALM workers and the farmers who employed them, striking a balance.

The pair then turned to water policy, with Mr McCormack pledging a Coalition government would immediately stop buybacks, which he said were distorting water markets and hollowing out regional communities.

“You can't just keep taking water out of productive use, out of the consumptive pool, away from farmers,” he said.

“When the government comes into the water market and buys more water out of it, it distorts the price of water ... it distorts it for everybody.”

Mr McCormack also criticised the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, arguing it lacked the accountability applied to farming operations.

He called for greater investment in water infrastructure after the federal budget cut $103 million from the National Water Grid.

For Mr McNab, water issues are central to every investment decision on his property.

He pointed to two-year-old trees representing years of committed expenditure as evidence of what was at stake.

“Without water, we simply wouldn’t be making those decisions,” he said.

“There’s not enough in the consumptive pool at the current point in time, and more buybacks are only going to make that harder.”

Mr Birrell said the day’s visits underscored how federal policy was being felt directly on the ground across the electorate.

“People like Mitch planted these trees, not Jim Chalmers and not Anthony Albanese,” he said.

“The best thing they can do is make sure he’s got the tools he needs.”