Interview with Jeremy Jones, ABC Capricornia Breakfast

JEREMY JONES: Well, Senator Anthony Chisholm is spending time in central Queensland this week at a time when a number of federal decisions have a direct impact on us here in CQ. The federal government is trying to bring migration down, including changes to working holiday visas. Meanwhile, the Olympic rowing coming to Rocky renews hope of a better flight network for CQ, and that extraordinary cost of flying from regional Queensland. And then there's gas. We'll get into all of that right away. Senator Anthony Chisholm is Queensland-based and serves as Assistant Minister for Resources, Regional Development and Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Welcome to Brekkie. You're in CQ looking at the Beef Corridors program. The federal and Queensland governments are putting $500 million into the Beef Corridors program, eventually sealing about 200 kilometres of roads. So for somebody driving through cattle country here in CQ, what changes?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: What you'll see is a lot more bitumen and it'll be a lot safer as well, Jeremy. So that's obviously great for productivity, as it's called the Beef Roads program, so we get a sense of how important it is for the beef industry, but we also know a lot of families and other businesses use these roads as well. So, it is a $500 million commitment over 10 years. $400 million of that comes from the federal government. And this is about improving safety and alignment, so what we'll be seeing today on the Clermont-Alpha Road is some of the early works program that's been underway there to make some of those intersections safer, and then a number of the Mayors are joining us in town in Clermont just to talk about what we can do to keep making progress on this important initiative that does increase productivity– great for business, but also about safety for families as well.

JEREMY JONES: And there are 24 projects expected across the program, completion stretches all the way up to 2035. How do you decide which roads go first?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: What we do is we listen to the councils on that. And they're obviously the ones with the finger on the pulse. There's some fantastic Mayors who are driving this program forward. I look forward to catching up with them later today. But they know what's important for their local area. This is about identifying those projects and then you've got the financial support from the federal government and then the state government as well coordinating these projects from their level.

JEREMY JONES: You're listening to Brekkie on ABC Capricornia. You're hearing from Queensland Senator Anthony Chisholm. If you have any thoughts, 0487 993 222, or any questions for the Senator, we'd love to hear from you. There's a lot to get into. We'll jump to gas policy as well. The government's backed away from automatically requiring LNG exporters to reserve 20 per cent of their exports for Australia, instead making the reserve up to that amount. What is the policy?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: What this is about is ensuring that we have a modest oversupply for the domestic market. So this will be great for families, this will be great for industrial users, which is important in regional Queensland, and ensuring that this will drive down prices for domestic users. I think many people across the country have been frustrated about the high price of gas to the domestic market. We want to ensure that's lower. That's going to be great for businesses. It's going to be great for families. And it's going to ensure that drive that we've got of a future made in Australia to see manufacturing thrive– you can't do that unless you've got lower gas prices. And we believe that this policy will deliver that.

JEREMY JONES: Of course, it matters enormously here in CQ in places like Gladstone with Curtis Island, both a major exporter and employer. So how do you force more gas into the domestic market without undermining investment jobs and export contracts?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: That's why what this policy does of the domestic gas reservation, it ensures that the domestic market has a modest oversupply every year. So that ensures that we have enough gas to supply the domestic market that will drive down prices, but it doesn't put at risk those long-term contracts that those companies had signed when they went and built what happened off Curtis Island, which has been great for the gas development and industry, particularly in Queensland and on the East Coast. So it protects those contracts, but it ensures that we've got that domestic gas supply that we need, and that’s why we’ve announced the policy that we have. I am confident that this is going to drive down prices. It's going to be good for jobs, good for manufacturing, good for industry.

JEREMY JONES: Let’s jump to migration. And your government wants net overseas migration down, but agriculture, resource, tourism and hospitality across regional Queensland rely heavily on overseas workers. So how do you reduce migration without making our regional workforce shortages worse?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: This is something that we've been working on for a period of time now, and I think back to before the most recent federal election where we were trying to bring in a cap on international students. Unfortunately, the opposition wouldn't support us on that. So this has been a program that's been in the works. We think that it has been too high post-COVID. We want to get it down to levels that we've been more accustomed to over recent years, which is that 225,000 net overseas migration figure. So what Minister Burke announced last week is how we intend to achieve that net overseas migration target. There obviously will be an impact on some industries, but what is important to note is that this gets that figure down for instance in working holidaymakers down to where it was pre-COVID. And that's something that we think is achievable. We also think that we can make better use of the PALM scheme as well to ensure that our agricultural and regional towns continue to get the support that they need. But we do think it is important to be able to reach that net overseas migration target. And I think that that is supported throughout the country as well.

JEREMY JONES: Just getting to that, so many people in CQ work with backpackers, or backpackers are so important here– not just with work but comes to keeping sports teams going as well and being part of life here. How is it going to look for backpackers here in central Queensland?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: I'm confident that there'll still be a strong supply of backpackers that will want to come and live and work in regional Queensland. And it will get down to, as I mentioned, that levels that what we were at pre-COVID, where there was still strong demand and support in regional areas. We believe we can make better use of the PALM scheme as well to ensure that our agriculture industry are supported, given the seasonal nature of a lot of that workforce. But this is about getting that target number down to where it was pre-COVID. We think this is sustainable. We’ll still see people want to come and work in Australia, which would be fantastic. We know how important that is. But it’s also about ensuring that the public have confidence in the migration system, and that it isn’t getting abused at the same time.

JEREMY JONES: Well, Queensland Senator Anthony Chisholm, thanks for joining us on Brekkie, and enjoy Clermont today.

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: Will do. Thanks for having me.