The Hon Alan Tudge MP is currently acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs
Subjects: Working holiday makers supporting bushfire-affected areas, air arrival asylum seeker claims
DEBORAH KNIGHT: Now as communities start rebuilding after the devastating bushfires, there is some welcome news for those on the ground. The Government announcing this overhaul of backpacker visas to help people and businesses in these areas to get back on their feet, and get back on their feet fast.
Backpackers are now going to be allowed to stay with the same employer for longer, and it'll make it easier to obtain second or third year visas if they work in construction in bushfire affected areas. It's an idea that I reckon makes so much sense. It's a really practical way of helping communities. So we thought we'd speak to the acting Minister for Immigration and Migrant Services Alan Tudge to get the detail on this.
Alan, hello to you.
ALAN TUDGE: G'day, Deb.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: It's a great idea on face value. I think it just makes such common sense. We need people on the ground, boots on the ground to actually help these communities. What's been the response from bushfire-affected areas?
ALAN TUDGE: So far it has been a very strong response and support, and I was out just this morning with the CEO of BlazeAid, and BlazeAid is an organisation which does a lot of work to rebuild fences.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: We know BlazeAid, they're a great supporter. We talk to them often on the show.
ALAN TUDGE: Yeah, and they've been very supportive of it. They've had dozens, if not hundreds, of people approach them, backpackers, and say they want to be able to help out with BlazeAid. And these changes that I announced today will facilitate that.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: So how will it physically work? Because this is part of the recommendations from the National Bushfire Recovery Agency. But how will the actual special visa work in a practical sense?
ALAN TUDGE: So there's three changes which we have announced today. The first is that ordinarily, if you're a backpacker, you're only able to work for a single employer for six months. We've changed that so you can work for an employer for 12 months now. And what that means is that you've already been a backpacker, you've already been working on a farm for five or so months, and that farmer really needs you right now in that bushfire-affected areas, you'll be able to stay on.
The second change we made is that we'll now include construction work as part of the designated work activities that you're be able to participate in. Of course that’s so important in the bushfire-affected areas.
And then thirdly, we've enabled people to do voluntary work for three months to count towards their eligibility to get their second years visa. Previously, in order to get a second visa for a second year, you had to do three months of paid work in a regional area. Now we're saying if you want to do voluntary work in one of these bushfire-affected areas, that counts towards you being able to get the extra year visa, which so many people want to do.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: Yeah. Which all of those measures are going to go a long way in helping these communities get back on their feet.
ALAN TUDGE: Yes, that's absolutely right. They're very practical measures just to get more people on the ground going right now, because we need all hands on deck. I mean, you've got places like Mallacoota, which ordinarily only builds about five houses each year, and at the moment there's about 100 houses that need to be rebuilt, plus everything else that needs to be constructed. It's going to be an enormous demand on people to find a source of labour, to get that work done, and that includes obviously tradies from across the country that are going to be needed in those places as well.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: What are you going to do, though, in a year's time after you've seen this big influx of backpackers in a bushfire-affected areas? Potentially then, after the system is over, they're all going to disappear. Is that going to create problems for these communities, where obviously they're bringing extra income, extra workers, and then in a year's time they could all be gone?
ALAN TUDGE: We've had these extra incentives for backpackers to go to regional areas for quite some time, and the incentive is that if you go and work for three months in a regional area, we will then make you eligible to get a second year's visa. And they've been very popular. So about a third of all backpackers actually take advantage of that. Now, that will stay in place regardless, even when these other measures come off. Because we want to get people out to those regional areas.
Often the farmers, particularly with things like the orchardists, they need those backpackers to pick the fruit, and of course it brings money in for those local communities as well, because as you probably know, backpackers tend to earn the money and then go and spend it in a very short amount of time in those local areas as well, so they're great for local communities on a number of fronts.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: They do like to visit the local pub, which is a welcome thing. The money going into local coffers.
ALAN TUDGE: That's exactly right. I mean, often they work very hard during the day and then they'll go and have a good time at night, probably spend most of that money at the local pub or at a local restaurants and the like. But that all helps the local communities as well in terms of bringing that - keeping those dollars in those local communities.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: Sampling a good Aussie schnitty, which after you're picking fruit, you deserve that. Now I wanted to ask you too about this other issue: asylum seekers arriving by plane. This report in Nine papers today revealing around 50,000 people have had their claims rejected, are still awaiting deportation. What's going on here?
ALAN TUDGE: So in essence, these are people who have arrived in Australia validly on, say, a tourist visa or on a working visa, or the like. When they get to Australia they then put in a claim for asylum and seeking a protection visa. Now, nine times out of ten, these claims are not legitimate claims and people are just doing them to take advantage of the fact they'll go through the legal process and while doing that, they'll be able to do some work and they'll send remittances back to their home country. So, they're almost deliberately taking advantage of the legal structure that we have in place. And sometimes they can be here for years appealing to the AAT, appealing to the courts and into the full court.
Now, at the end of the day, we've got to keep perspective on this issue because we know who these people are, they've been security checked, they've been health checked, so we know exactly what they're doing. At the same time, they do tend to clog up the court system.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: But you've also got nearly 40,000 of these so-called plane people waiting for a determination of their refugee status, and Labor's saying, and they have been for a while now, that the Government is just trying to sweep this issue under the rug.
ALAN TUDGE: No, they've actually had their status determined by a decision-maker within the Department of Home Affairs, but they don't like that decision so they'll appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. If they don't like that decision, they'll appeal to a court. If they don't like that decision, they'll appeal to a full court, et cetera. That's why there's so many people right now going through these appeals. In the meantime, while they're going through that appeals process, they'll be on a bridging visa which gives them some work rights, and that's almost what they're after in many cases, rather than actually being genuinely seeking the protection visa.
Now, we've already clamped down on some of this, working with our partner countries. Most people come from China and Malaysia. We've clamped down on some of those at the borders and we're considering doing more. And if Labor are so concerned about this, well I suggest that they'll be supporting whatever proposals we might be putting up in the future to the Parliament. But we're certainly not going to be taking lectures from the Labor Party in relation to border protection because they're the ones that let the boats come in by the thousands, people drowning at sea, we had no idea who the people were. So this is a very different kettle of fish, where we do know who they are. No one's dying in the process. There's no people smugglers involved. At the same time, we do want to get more on top of it.
DEBORAH KNIGHT: All right. Well we thank you for your time on the show today and explaining how these new backpacker visas will work as well. Alan Tudge, thank you.
ALAN TUDGE: Thanks very much, Deb.
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