Mr BAYLEY – Minister, we have a few questions in relation to the newly developed Palawa Business Hub. The Palawa Business Hub has made strides in offering culturally appropriate business support and connecting Aboriginal businesses. The Closing the Gap Agreement that your government has signed up to has a specific target – target 8 – around strong economic participation and development of Aboriginal people and their communities.
This Palawa Business Hub fits neatly within Closing the Gap target 8. Forgive me if I missed it, but can you confirm if there’s an allocation in the Budget for the Palawa Business Hub or Aboriginal Business Support full stop, and if not, will you commit to looking to give this initiative the support that it deserves?
Mr FERGUSON – I am aware that the Palawa Business Hub has received quite a significant amount of funding from the Australian Government, and that’s to be commended. If we can encourage new enterprises that reach the Aboriginal community, that is a very good thing. We have some initiatives that we are co-funding as well. Could I ask Ms Cairney to provide that detail, though?
Ms CAIRNEY – Certainly. The small business unit has been exploring how best to reach the Aboriginal business community, and is focusing on identifying and developing those key relationships with the community. That includes Marrawah Law, who are leading the establishment of the Palawa Business Hub.
Discussions with that organisation have highlighted that the awareness of Tasmanian government services and supports is low within the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, and many small Aboriginal businesses, particularly at the early stage or those thinking about starting a business, are not leveraging the extensive opportunities.
As such, we provided $25,000 to Marrawah Law to support some communications activities with the Tasmanian Aboriginal business community. We’ve also provided some further funding of $5000 to support the development of a program of networking and information sessions. I can share with the committee that the Business Tasmania Team will be doing a state roadshow with the Palawa Business Hub next week.
We are, as Business Tasmania, not just this portfolio of small business, but across our different sectoral areas we are in active discussion with the Palawa Hub and to see where there are other areas of opportunity to make sure that our range of supports and services can be supported by the Palawa Hub. That includes potentially identifying some further funding options through our different portfolios, strategies and plans.
Mr BAYLEY – Another one in terms of tenancies, specifically the residential tenancy regulations which have recently come into effect and enabled the eviction of vulnerable farm workers when employment is terminated. Migrant, young and other farm workers are a vulnerable cohort of our community and they perform work that, as we all know, is incredibly valuable within the economy. We saw during COVID how important our Pasifika and other workers were.
This new regulation may deter some of those workers from coming to the state if they can’t have the security of tenancy they need. Other states do it better. Advocacy groups including TasCOSS, the Multicultural Council, the Migrant Resource Council, Community Legal Service and Tenants Union have basically said that the practical effect of the proposed amendments is that on‑farm workers whose accommodation is conditional on their employment, will be more vulnerable to exploitation.
How is it acceptable that we are introducing new regulations in this state that basically enable exploitation of what is already a vulnerable cohort of our community? Will you commit to doing anything about it to turn this around and make sure that these incredibly important farm workers, who rely on farm tenancies, are protected into the longer term?
Mr FERGUSON – I respect where your question is coming from. This was a pragmatic solution for the agricultural community that wants to be able to do an even better job at providing accommodation to workers. You’ve spun it one way. I would like to invite you to consider it a different way.
Mr BAYLEY – The advocates are calling it exploitation.
Mr FERGUSON – This will in fact potentially lead to a better outcome where there’s more reliability in the on-farm sector to be able to provide accommodation to their workers. That’s exactly why we’ve done it. We’re not doing it to take away from people’s enjoyment of their quality of life and a job; we’ve actually done it to enhance the availability of rules that are fit for purpose and that meet the needs of the agricultural sector.
We’ve had strong advocacy on this from a different perspective that you didn’t mention in your question – from primary employers in Tasmania.
Mr BAYLEY – Vested interests, minister.
Mr FERGUSON – You say vested interests, but these are industries and employers that are committed to their workforce. I mentioned TasFarmers as well. They wanted – and we agree – that where accommodation is part of the employment agreement, it’s entirely reasonable and indeed very sensible for us to take this approach.
Those regulations are now in law and they’ve been in place for four days since 20 September. We want to see people supported, but the primary purpose of that accommodation, as I’m sure you would acknowledge and others hopefully as well, is to accommodate on‑farm workers.
Mr BAYLEY – Of course, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t afford them some protections, minister.
CHAIR – Order.
Mr FERGUSON – There are, and we’d be happy to discuss those protections, but we’re not proposing, and the new regulation doesn’t deal with, people being accommodated on farms who don’t work there. It’s not somehow a backdoor way of having unfair rental agreements with people. It’s really about bringing the residential component of a successful employment outcome to good policy. That’s entirely why we’ve done it.
