00:01We've made the decision with respect to students. Students tend to be younger and the other
00:06thing that happens when students bring families is even if a university or educational institutions
00:12doing all the right things in student accommodation, the moment you bring your family with you,
00:16you don't tend to stay in student accommodation and you're back out in competition in the
00:20general housing market. So for students, this is something where we believe the universities
00:26and educational institutions will be able to work with it, but it's also a very different
00:31cohort. Now, when I say they can't bring families, there are some areas of regional significance
00:37and strategic significance for Australia where we will still allow it. So we'll still allow
00:44it for the Pacific, we'll still allow it for ASEAN. And similarly, for some courses where
00:49someone is logically going to be older, like PhD courses and things like that, we don't
00:55want to miss out on them. So they'd be able to bring their families.
00:57The National Farmers Federation says the price of food will increase because of your changes
01:02to the backpacker visas. That's what they're predicting. You'd think they'd know we're in
01:08the middle of a cost of living crisis. There's a war in the Middle East that won't end. That's
01:12pretty risky, isn't it?
01:14Look, for farmers, I'd say two things. First of all, the announcement we made today is about
01:22getting the processing moving again for those backpacker visas that have an obligation if
01:28you want the extra years to work in the regions. So that's a significant advantage for all that,
01:35you know, wasn't there before my speech is now on the table and the department getting moving
01:40on the processing of those again at a faster pace. The second thing I'd say though is we have
01:47the Palm Scheme, we have the Pacific Workers Scheme, which is there and waiting. And back
01:53when I was Employment Minister, we did a lot to improve the situation and improve the rights
01:59against exploitation of those workers. When we did that, some of the worst employers in
02:05the horticulture sector, not all, not the main horticulture employers, I won't pretend
02:09that, but we had some of them say, well, if you improve the working standards of Pacific
02:13workers, we'll just go to backpackers. Now, that's not a reason to say that you need backpackers.
02:23The Pacific workers, we're Pacific workers...
02:25But can you be certain, Minister, that it won't have an impact on food prices?
02:29Well, if they're willing to use the Pacific workers, if they're willing to use the Pacific
02:33workers, then everything that they want picked, every job they want done, is completely there
02:42and able to be done. And if their reason and their claim for keeping prices low is jeopardised
02:49by having to pay Pacific workers properly, then I think that would show a very poor reflection
02:56on those individual businesses.
02:57It might, but it gets passed on to consumers, doesn't it? And that becomes a political headache
03:01for the government if they can say consumers are now going to pay more because of migration
03:06changes that you'll make.
03:07Well, no, no, no, but if we're in that argument, we're in the argument that consumers, the weight...
03:12I don't think consumers believe their pathway to paying less should rely on worker exploitation.
03:17Well, that's a good question.
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