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Speaker 1: Farms and tourist towns are fearing a backpacker exodus, with

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Speaker 1: visa costs sawing up to six hundred and forty dollars now.

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Speaker 1: The federal government's considering a migration review as well. Apparently

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Speaker 1: this recommendation to limit permits for working holidaymakers to one

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Speaker 1: year now it's a move that industry leaders worn could

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Speaker 1: restrict the number of backpackers entering Australia, and the government

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Speaker 1: will increase the cost, as I mentioned, of those working

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Speaker 1: holiday maker visas by one hundred and thirty dollars from

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Speaker 1: Saturday now. It is something that quite a few people

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Speaker 1: are concerned about. Joining me on the line to tell

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Speaker 1: us more is the Shadow Federal Minister for Immigration and Citizenship,

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Speaker 1: Dan Tee.

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Speaker 2: And good morning to you, Dan, Good.

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Speaker 3: Morning, wonderful doably with you.

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Speaker 4: It's cold and wet and wintery here in Victoria, and

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Speaker 4: I wish I was in Dahlin up there in the

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Speaker 4: nice warm weather with you.

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Speaker 1: Well, mate, it's definitely not cold here. I'll give you

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Speaker 1: the hot tip.

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Speaker 3: How can I give you the cold keep? That definitely

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Speaker 3: is cold here. I'm sure there'll be plenty of Victorians

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Speaker 3: who are heading your way to get out of this

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Speaker 3: cold down here.

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Speaker 4: At the bar.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we'll take all the tourists we can get. Dan,

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Speaker 1: tell us what is the situation with this increase when

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Speaker 1: it comes to those working holiday maker visas well.

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Speaker 4: The government is going to increase the backpack of visa

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Speaker 4: by one hundred and thirty dollars on July one to

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Speaker 4: six hundred and forty dollars. This makes it the most

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Speaker 4: expensive backpack of visa anywhere in the world, more so

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Speaker 4: than New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, and

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Speaker 4: it means it's going to be harder for us to

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Speaker 4: get the backpackers. And not only that, there's a review

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Speaker 4: which the government has commissioned and the review is recommended

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Speaker 4: that backpackers be limited to coming to Australia for one year. Now,

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Speaker 4: as you know, we've always given them the option to

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Speaker 4: go and work in regional Australia and then work a

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Speaker 4: second year and that helps us make sure we get

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Speaker 4: backpackers out into regional and rural areas to either help

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Speaker 4: with the restaurants, the cafes, the accommodation venues in tourist

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Speaker 4: areas or in the case of picking fruit, picking mangoes

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Speaker 4: and that type of thing. The backpacker workforce makes up

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Speaker 4: about eighty percent of our horticultural workforce, so we just

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Speaker 4: can't understand why the government is picking on backpackers. They

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Speaker 4: make a three billion dollar contribution to our nation, and

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Speaker 4: it just seems so shortsighted, and we just can't understand

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Speaker 4: why backpackers are being part of who we are as

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Speaker 4: a nation and our tourism industry for so long.

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Speaker 1: Well, but they also have such a huge impact in

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Speaker 1: a place like the Northern Territory where they.

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Speaker 2: Help to pick fruit.

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Speaker 1: They help to fill quite a few different jobs that

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Speaker 1: a lot of the time locals don't want to do.

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Speaker 1: So I just wonder what kind of impact it's going

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Speaker 1: to have when you look at things like, you know,

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Speaker 1: our mango pickers for.

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Speaker 4: Example, exactly, and you know, we've been struggling to get

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Speaker 4: the workforce we need for picking mangoes, picking other types

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Speaker 4: of fruits, working whether it be in our cafes or

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Speaker 4: in our bars. That's what the backpackers do. They love

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Speaker 4: doing that. It's part of their whole holiday experience. And

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Speaker 4: there seems to be this push at the moment by

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Speaker 4: the alban Easy government that everyone who comes here has

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Speaker 4: to be permanent. And we've got one point five million

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Speaker 4: people over the next five years coming here, and yet

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Speaker 4: the backpackers who come help contribute to the economy, do

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Speaker 4: the jobs that others won't, and then go so they

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Speaker 4: don't put the pressure on the rentals, they don't put

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Speaker 4: the housing pressures on. They're the ones they seem to

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Speaker 4: be targeting, and we just can't understand why. We think

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Speaker 4: this is a very bad policy. We've called on the

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Speaker 4: government to say that they will not adopt the one

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Speaker 4: year rule because that will mean backpackers will look elsewhere,

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Speaker 4: and also to say that this is the last time

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Speaker 4: they're going to increase this backpack of these are cost

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Speaker 4: until it's competitive with other countries, because otherwise we're going

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Speaker 4: to have less backpackers, less people to do the work

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Speaker 4: that we need doing, and it'll really harm especially Northern

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Speaker 4: Australia where so many of the backpackers go.

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Speaker 1: I did just speak to the Minister for Business here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory and you know, put this to him,

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Speaker 1: and you know he said that there does need to

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Speaker 1: be some further discussions on this one. I truly do

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Speaker 1: wonder what kind of impact it's going to have for

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Speaker 1: us in the territory. But I know that there'll be

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Speaker 1: some people listening this morning thinking, you know, come on,

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Speaker 1: it's only an extra one hundred and thirty dollars.

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Speaker 2: What do you say to them.

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Speaker 4: Well, I say to them, you need to talk to

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Speaker 4: the backpackers themselves else, because when they're making the decision

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Speaker 4: as to where they go, they're facing cost of living

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Speaker 4: pressures wherever they've come from, whether they be Europe or

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Speaker 4: anywhere else around the world. And they look and they say, okay,

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Speaker 4: where can I go where I know I'm not going

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Speaker 4: to have to pay too much for easier They already

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Speaker 4: know it. They make that choice to come to Australia.

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Speaker 4: Airfare is significantly higher than what it is in most

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Speaker 4: other places. So they add the cost of these things

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Speaker 4: up and they go, well, maybe I'll go to the States,

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Speaker 4: or maybe I'll go to Europe, or maybe I'll go

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Speaker 4: to Latin America. So we've got to remember we compete

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Speaker 4: for backpackers, and the more cost you're put on, especially

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Speaker 4: when you've got cost of living out of control, the

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Speaker 4: more likely they're going to say, well, maybe I should

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Speaker 4: go somewhere where it's cheaper and not only that if

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Speaker 4: they know that they can go somewhere where they can

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Speaker 4: get a second year, and you're here in Australia, we're

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Speaker 4: going to turf them out after one year. Then they're

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Speaker 4: likely to go elsewhere. And we're already facing workforce shortages.

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Speaker 4: So we don't want to be doing anything to make

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Speaker 4: the backpackers go anywhere else. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 4: we want to be making sure that they're going to

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Speaker 4: continue to come here because otherwise I don't know who's

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Speaker 4: going to staff our caf is, our bars, who's going

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Speaker 4: to pick our fruit. As I've said, eighty percent of

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Speaker 4: our fruit is picked by backpackers, So if we don't

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Speaker 4: have them, that's just going to add to the cost

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Speaker 4: that will be paying for our fruit and begs in

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Speaker 4: the supermarket.

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Speaker 2: So Dante and where to from here?

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Speaker 1: From the federal oppositions perspective, I mean, it sounds as

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Speaker 1: though this is going ahead. It looks as though these

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Speaker 1: costs are going to go up from Saturday.

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Speaker 4: Well, so two things. First of all, the government has

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Speaker 4: to rule out that it will limit the backpackers to

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Speaker 4: one year. That would just be so detrimental and such

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Speaker 4: a silly thing to do. So we want them to

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Speaker 4: come out up today or tomorrow and say no, we're

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Speaker 4: not going to take up that recommendation that's been given

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Speaker 4: to us by the panel that we self selected to

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Speaker 4: do this review. So they should just hit that on

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Speaker 4: the head straight away. And then what they should do

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Speaker 4: is commit to say they're going to make the backpack

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Speaker 4: of these are comparable with what it is in other countries,

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Speaker 4: so rule out making any more increases, and say really,

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Speaker 4: if they're going to do anything else, it would either

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Speaker 4: behold it where it is or decrease it. So we

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Speaker 4: could get those two commitments. I think that would be

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Speaker 4: a good start. And then they need to just give

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Speaker 4: an explanation as to why it is they're doing this.

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Speaker 4: What have they got against backpackers? That's what That's what

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Speaker 4: everyone that I've spoken to wants to know is what

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Speaker 4: has the government got against backpackers? And I think if

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Speaker 4: they could do those three things, explain what they've got

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Speaker 4: against backpackers, say that they won't limit them at a

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Speaker 4: time backpackers can come to one year, and then say

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Speaker 4: that they won't increase the backpack of visa by anymore,

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Speaker 4: that would be a really good start.

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Speaker 1: Well, Dantian the federal Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.

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Speaker 2: Appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on the Show's.

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Speaker 4: Been a pleasure. It's really important issue and really appreciate

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Speaker 4: your interest in

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks so much.