Albanese intervention puts SunRice job cuts on hold as One Nation MP praises deal
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has intervened in a push to protect jobs at SunRice’s mills in regional New South Wales, after the rice giant flagged
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has intervened in a push to protect jobs at SunRice’s mills in regional New South Wales, after the rice giant flagged 78 redundancies and 92 role changes this month. One Nation MP David Farley said on Sunday the federal government was considering a multimillion-dollar support package for the company’s Riverina operations.
SunRice, one of the world’s biggest rice companies, announced earlier in August that it would cut jobs at its Deniliquin and Leeton mills, along with Australian Grain Storage. The company has also kept up its criticism of water policy settings it says are hurting rice growing in the Riverina, where irrigated production depends heavily on access to water.
A rare alliance in Canberra
Farley, who represents Farrer, said he was “impressed” after Albanese approached him at a Governor-General’s event and told him the issue was being handled. Farley said the prime minister had assured him the government would help and that the two had discussed how support could be put together.
“I’m happy with the outcome as it’s progressing,” he said on ABC Insiders. “So you know, I tilt my hat to them.”
The remark captured an unusual political moment: a One Nation MP welcoming help from a Labor prime minister on an issue tied to regional industry, water politics and local employment. The details of the package were not immediately clear, but ABC’s Insiders host David Speers said a funding package was being prepared to help SunRice and save the jobs.
Water policy remains the fault line
The proposed rescue comes as critics continue to blame the federal government’s controversial water buyback scheme for reducing irrigation water available to growers and, in turn, cutting crop volumes. That argument has been central to the backlash from parts of the Riverina, where rice production is a major employer and the mills sit close to the politics of water allocation.
SunRice chief executive Paul Serra said in the job-cut announcement that the company would keep advocating against the “adverse impacts of water policy settings” on the local rice industry. For workers in Deniliquin, Leeton and the broader supply chain, the issue is immediate. Pay packets, shifts and seasonal work are on the line.
Farley also used a separate appearance on Insiders to push back on Liberal MP Andrew Hastie’s claim that One Nation had no serious policies, saying the party’s platform involved substantial work. But on Sunday, the headline was the same one that has unsettled the Riverina all month: whether Canberra would step in before the cuts bite. Albanese, Farley said, had already given him the answer.
