Thread by @stephendziedzic

Thread on the Ag Visa and Pacific labour schemes. It's a bit in the weeds, but it's worth digging into the subject because we're talking about - as the Ag Minister David Littleproud says - "the biggest structural reform to the agricultural workforce we have ever seen" 1/

First question. Will the Ag visa provide a pathway to permanent residency? This is what the Agriculture Minister said on Aug 23 - the new visa will "complement" Pacific schemes but "also provide a pathway to permanent residency" 2/

But this is how officials from Home Affairs put it last night at Senate estimates. The Government is "exploring the options" for a pathway to permanent residency. One of these things is not (quite) like the other 3/

Incidentally, that's the same language which you find in the Australian government fact sheet, which also says PR is being "explored" - although it also says expect more announcements on this front 4/

Hard to avoid the conclusion that there's a bit of a bureaucratic go slow on this one, despite impatience of the Nats/some farmers to get the Ag Visa up and running ASAP 5/

Obviously a pathway to permanent residency would be a huge draw-card for many workers in the region. But it only further inflames fears in parts of the govt (and bureaucracy) that the Ag Visa could quickly render the PLS/SWP irrelevant 6/

When will the first workers actually arrive in Australia under the Ag Visa? The Nats say they want the first workers here this year, but that seems like a stretch given we're already almost into November and no agreements have yet been struck with any regional countries 7/

Officials just said last night that the Government was working towards getting the first workers here this year. The fact sheet seems to give even more wriggle room, says first workers will arrive between December 21 and March 22 (which could easily mean they miss harvest?) 8/

Footage of that exchange can be found here via @SenRaffCiccone. Numbers are also rubbery - officials simply say the expect the "initial numbers to be in the hundreds" 9/

https://twitter.com/SenRaffCiccone/status/1452855913681850368?s=20

I'm deep in the weeds here but will press on. Final question- who is actually running this process? Which agency is taking the lead? Initially Govt said the visa would be "operated" by @dfat (presumably to stop the Nats from running riot and undermining PLS/SWP) 10/

Even more interesting- and I didn't realise this until the excellent @jonathan_pryke pointed it out - the branch with responsibility for the visa is actually under the Office of the Pacific - which gives you a clear idea of their priorities here 11/

On one level this is pretty unremarkable as @dfat is meant to be drawing on their expertise with PLS/SWP. But there's a bit of clear signalling here as well, I reckon 12/

And then to add even more confusion Pezzullo (if you're still following this damn thread I don't need to give his title) was asked if @dfat was the lead agency. He seemed ... keen to emphasise that Home Affairs was also playing a central role 13/

Again, this is simultaneously a) a statement of the obvious and b) signalling 14/

I'll leave it there. Final observation: there seems to be an awful lot of bureaucratic contestation and uncertainty for a visa which has *already been announced* - but I guess we'll see how this develops over coming months 15/