Media Release | 31 August 2026
Lachlan Hunter MLA
Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food
The Nationals WA have called on the Albanese Government to urgently fix Australia’s Working Holiday Maker visa program, warning processing delays and application pauses risk leaving Western Australian farmers and regional businesses without the workers they need.
Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Lachlan Hunter MP said the Federal Government’s decision to slow the processing of working holiday visas, alongside pauses affecting applications from numerous countries, could not have come at a worse time for regional WA.
“Harvest is approaching, and farmers across the Wheatbelt and regional WA need certainty about where their workforce is going to come from,” Mr Hunter said.
“Backpackers and working holiday makers have been part of the regional workforce for decades. They fill key seasonal jobs when farms and businesses need extra hands, often for relatively short periods.
“You cannot simply turn that workforce tap off, or slow it to a trickle, and expect regional Australia to absorb the impact.”
Mr Hunter said the consequences would extend well beyond the farm gate.
“When a backpacker comes to a Wheatbelt town for harvest, they’re not just working on a farm.
“They’re filling up at the local service station, buying dinner at the pub, shopping at the supermarket, staying in accommodation and spending their wages in local businesses. That money circulates through regional communities and supports jobs well beyond agriculture.”
Working holiday makers contributed an estimated $3.2 billion to the Australian economy in 2019, including at least $726 million spent in regional Australia.
Mr Hunter said WA farmers were already facing rising input costs, labour shortages, biosecurity pressures, seasonal uncertainty and increasing red tape.
“If a farmer cannot get enough workers when a crop is ready to come off, you cannot simply tell the crop to wait.”
Mr Hunter said the Albanese Government must immediately clarify the future of the program and guarantee that regional workforce requirements would be considered in any migration changes.
“Migration policy needs to recognise that the workforce requirements of regional Australia are fundamentally different from those of our capital cities,” Mr Hunter said.
“If Canberra wants to change migration numbers, regional farmers and small businesses should not become collateral damage.”
ENDS
