CORONAVIRUS — SKILLED AGRICULTURAL WORKERS —BLADIN
VILLAGE, NORTHERN TERRITORY
472. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Premier:
Noting that a record grains crop is
forecast for this season and that the industry wrote to the Minister for
Agriculture and Food some 10 weeks ago calling for an urgent solution for
getting skilled agricultural workers into WA, why has this government failed to
put forward a proposal for the use of Bladin Village in the Northern Territory?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
The minister and the government
have been putting propositions to the federal government now for a considerable
time about getting skilled workers who can
operate some of the equipment in the grains industry into Western Australia.
Unfortunately, the commonwealth government does not want to participate and
does not want to help. It may be news to the member for Roe, but we do not
control international borders. The state government does not control international borders. That is a matter for the
commonwealth government. The commonwealth government controls who comes
into and leaves Australia, and Western Australia is part of Australia. We do
not have a say over that. In July, the Minister for Agriculture and Food wrote
to the federal Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia, Minister
Littleproud out of Queensland, seeking the use of commonwealth facilities for
these purposes. We have had no positive response from the commonwealth.
I know that the Nationals WA has
problems with the concept of who controls the international borders, but I want
the member to understand once again that the commonwealth government, not the
state government, controls the international borders. We have some control,
because the High Court has given it to us, of the interstate borders. We had to confirm that in the High Court against
Mr Clive Palmer and his friends in the Liberal and National Parties who
took us on in the High Court, and we were successful. That is the border we
control; we do not control the international border.
We have a lot of sympathy for and understanding of the grains
industry and, as the member knows, last year we did the Work and Wander Out
Yonder campaign, and a large number of Western Australians were secured for the
work that was required to be done in the agricultural sector, in particular in
the grains industry. We also have done a lot of work for the horticultural
industries by securing workers out of COVID-free states. There are about two or
three of them in the world—including Vanuatu and Tonga—so
workers have come in on aircraft. They still have to quarantine in a hotel in
Perth, and then they work in horticulture and other industries around Western Australia.
That system has worked well.
The member has to understand that if
we bring people from COVID-positive countries, particularly from Europe, we
will have cases amongst them. The commonwealth, quite rightfully, is
prioritising bringing Australians home, and, more recently, bringing people—Australians
and people who worked with Australians—out of Afghanistan. We worked
cooperatively with the commonwealth on that. We have sought cooperation with
the commonwealth on this matter. The commonwealth has been entirely reluctant
to use its facilities for the last 19 months. It used Christmas Island once: when it evacuated people out of Wuhan back in
March last year, it sent them to Christmas Island. Since then, it has
refused point-blank to use its facilities.
The
state, of course, is cooperating with the commonwealth to set up a quarantine
facility in Bullsbrook, which the commonwealth claims will be
operational in March next year; I think that is optimistic, but that is what it
claims. We will ensure that we do our part in that. Rather than politicise
these issues around dealing with COVID, member for Roe—they always seem
to put the member up for these questions—I think his efforts would be
much better directed to working on the commonwealth, which has control of
international borders.