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; bushfire loans
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: You would have heard I'm sure just on AM a moment ago that there's going to be some rule changes for working holiday visas to allow foreign backpackers and others on working holidays to help out with the bushfire recovery. Alan Tudge is the Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure. He's also the acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services, and Multicultural Affairs. Try and fit that all on one business card.
Alan Tudge, Good morning.
ALAN TUDGE: Good morning Virginia.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: How exactly are you going to change these rules? And what do you want with backpackers to do?
ALAN TUDGE: We're making a few changes. Overall we're trying to get more backpackers into the disaster-affected areas so that they can help out with the recovery. We need all hands on deck at the moment and there's lots of willing and able backpackers to help with the tasks.
So what we're doing is we're, first up, enabling a person to work with the same employer for 12 months rather than the normal six-month limit. Importantly we're also enabling a backpacker to do voluntary work in the disaster-affected area, and that voluntary work will count towards their criteria for being eligible for a second year visa. So that's a really important measure as well because a lot of people do want to help out voluntarily, but they know that if they do that they might miss out on getting paid work elsewhere which is what they have to do to get a second year visa.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: So in a sense, you're asking them to do this but you're not compelling them, you're not requiring those here on that that kind of working holiday visa to do this?
ALAN TUDGE: No. These are all voluntary measures. They're all incentives for backpackers to do more.
Typically you might be a person on a farm at the moment who's working and helping out on that farm, but they might be coming up against their six-month limit. What we're saying is, we will enable you to stay on that farm for a further six months at this particular moment, given the pressures which are on the systems at the moment in those bushfire-affected areas.
There is so much work to do in terms of housing rebuilds, in terms of fences to be constructed, in terms of other types of clearance and land maintenance. We do need all those hands on deck. There's great young people out there who want to help out, either in paid capacity or voluntary capacity, and we want to facilitate that.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Do you know if these backpackers or those on these working holiday visas will want to do this kind of work? Will want to do that kind of manual labour? And will want to go out into rural and regional areas? Or are you just hoping they might?
ALAN TUDGE: No, we certainly do know that they want to do that. There's 30,000 people already each year will go and work in a regional area in order to make themselves eligible for a second year visa. That's what the rule is presently. We're sort of saying that you don't now have to work in that regional area, instead you can volunteer for three months in a bushfire-affected area and that will make you eligible for that second year visa. That's really important and we think that will be very powerful.
Certainly the head of BlazeAid - and you probably know that organisation, Virginia - they do a lot of the fence reconstructions. The head of that said that they have volunteers coming up to them - sorry, backpackers coming up to them all the time wanting to help out, but at the same time not wanting to jeopardise their opportunity to stay for a second year in Australia.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: One problem though that I can see with this, which is a major structural hurdle to a program like this working, Alan Tudge, is what I mentioned before which is that only one of nearly 300 loan applications made by bushfire-hit businesses have been approved by the Federal Government. This is federal money administered by the states. If your business isn't able to open and operate because you can't get access to this money then there's no point getting a volunteer or even a paid workforce, is there?
ALAN TUDGE: Certainly I think you'd be very happy to have volunteers helping out with - reconstructing fences, for example, is such a critical thing for farmers. Unless you got those fences up and running -
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: [Talks over] Sure, but if you can't get access to this money and you can't reopen your business -
ALAN TUDGE: Just let address, first of all that first point in terms of access to money. We've obviously made available, grants of $50,000 directly to small businesses which have been affected by the bushfires, and then loans on top of that. Those grants though are being administered and assessed at the state level and they're going through that process. So there's a number of applications already in the system, I do know that. And I know the Victorian Government's trying to work through those as quickly as possible and we certainly want them to do that.
In the meantime, there's still an enormous amount of work which needs to be undertaken and, as I said, the head of BlazeAid has been very clear on this, and he'll be with me today when we make this formal announcement. There is so much work even in building fences alone. If you can't get the fences up quickly, you’ve got roaming livestock which means you can't manage that part of your business.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: These loans though have been available for three months now - since the 21st of November - and I know you say that state governments including Victoria are apparently working through it quickly. Are you concerned that it's taking this long?
ALAN TUDGE: We certainly want to see them processed as quickly as possible. We've been working very cooperatively with the Victorian Government in relation to this - but we want to see them processed fast. Of course, you do have to go through the right checks because it is a large amount of money which is handed over. But if someone's eligible, let's get them the money very, very quickly.
We've been managing the grants to individuals who have been affected in the bushfire-affected areas and in those cases people can literally bring up, they can do their application over the phone and we'll have the money in the bank account that day if they're eligible. So we've been very fast on that process. The small business ones are more complex but nevertheless we want to see that being done very quickly as well.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Is it because there's some concern about fraud? I mean, the $1000 you can ring up and get quickly. I know there is within the administration of that some concern that in time some of that might be shown to have been handed out fraudulently and maybe that's just the price you pay. But is that part of the reason for, if not a go slow on these $50,000 grants, then it not going as quickly as some might hope?
ALAN TUDGE: Listen, there's no evidence that they're on go slow. To the contrary, I think the Victorian Government is trying to move as quickly as possible. Of course you always have to be cognisant that people satisfy the criteria, so that the right people are getting the money and not the wrong people.
I don't know the intricate details of that particular program, I don't look after it, but I certainly we know we do want them processed as quickly as possible.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: We know you got another appointment, so I'll let you go. Alan Tudge, thanks so much.
ALAN TUDGE: Many thanks, Virginia.
[ENDS]
