# Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme is a temporary migration program that allows Australian businesses to hire temporary workers from certain Pacific island countries, as well as Timor-Leste. The scheme is a type of guest worker program, with participants able to work in seasonal jobs of up to 9 months or in longer-term jobs of between 1 and 4 years. Launched as the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme in 2008, workers were initially employed in agriculture, but the scheme has since expanded to other industries including meat processing and aged care.
As of August 2024, over 30,000 workers were employed through the scheme, with about 90% employed in agriculture and meat processing. The Australian government has described the scheme as a "triple win" that addresses labour shortages in Australia, provides well-paid employment to workers, and provides skill development and remittances to developing Pacific island nations. But the scheme has been criticised for facilitating exploitative practices. In a 2024 report, the New South Wales Anti-Slavery Commissioner highlighted poor working conditions and practices of modern slavery facilitated by the scheme. The scheme has also been criticised for facilitating brain drain from Pacific island nations and for providing limited benefits to workers.

## History

The predecessor of the PALM scheme began in 2008 as a pilot program to bring unskilled and low-skilled workers from Pacific island countries to work in the Australian agricultural sector. The pilot program initially had low take-up, which was attributed to a lack of awareness among employers and a lack of demand for additional labour due to an existing supply of backpackers and widespread illegal employment in the sector, but was assessed largely positively in a final evaluation report. The evaluation found that despite its limited uptake, the pilot scheme had "met its domestic objective of assisting Australian employers in the horticulture industry with demonstrated unmet demand for labour", while also providing benefits to workers. In December 2011, the government announced its intention to launch a full-fledged version of the scheme, the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP). The SWP was similar to the pilot scheme in most respects, but three new sectors — aquaculture, cotton and cane — were added, and the cap on the number of workers was expanded to 12,000 over a four year period.
In 2018, the Australian government launched the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS), which allowed for longer-term employment than the seasonal agricultural work permitted under the SWP. In April 2022, the SWP and PLS were consolidated into the uncapped, demand-driven PALM scheme. The scheme has been progressively expanded into new sectors beyond agriculture. The number of PALM workers in Australia grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many other populations of temporary workers were barred from entry to the country. The number of participants grew from about 6,000 in 2019 to about 30,000 in 2024.

## Operation

PALM scheme workers by country of origin, August 2024 :
| Country of origin | Number of workers |
| Fiji | 5995 |
| Vanuatu | 5780 |
| Solomon Islands | 4820 |
| Timor-Leste | 3760 |
| Tonga | 3680 |
| Samoa | 2865 |
| Papua New Guinea | 1960 |
| Kiribati | 1605 |
| Tuvalu | 310 |
| Nauru | 35 |
Workers from 10 countries are eligible for the PALM scheme - Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. As of August 2024, there were 30,805 PALM scheme workers in Australia, one third of whom were living in Queensland. 52% work in farming, 39% work in meat processing and 6% work in accommodation and care. PALM scheme workers make up 10% of Australia's agricultural workforce and 23% of its meat-packing workforce.
Many Pacific islanders are able to earn far more in Australia through participation in the PALM scheme than they would be able to earn in their home countries, and often send remittances home to their families. Long-term workers earned an average of $40,836 in 2020 and saved or remitted 39% of their income. PALM scheme workers sent home a total of $184 million between 2018 and 2022, while Australian employers earned $289 million in direct profit from PALM workers. Some Pacific island countries are highly reliant on these remittances; in 2022, Samoa ranked second in the world for remittances as a percentage of GDP at 33%.
Participation in the scheme fell by 24% between July 2023 and July 2024, in large part due to the return of other temporary workers, particularly backpackers, after the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses had become more reliant on PALM scheme workers during the pandemic as they were among the only groups of temporary workers who remained in Australia in large numbers.
In 2024, concerns began to be raised that PALM workers had begun taking advantage of a backlog in asylum applications by lodging unfounded asylum applications that would allow them to live and work in Australia for several years on bridging visas until their applications were decided. In the 2023-2024 financial year, asylum applications from the approximately 30,000 PALM workers in Australia reached 244 per month, a rate of almost 3000 per year. Professor Stephen Howes of the Development Policy Centre has labelled these applications "bogus", pointing out that all PALM countries except PNG have asylum rejection rates of close to 100% and that most asylum applications from PALM workers will ultimately be rejected.

## Criticism

One of the primary criticisms of the PALM scheme has been the inability for workers to change employers. Workers in the PALM scheme are typically tied to a single sponsoring employer, with very limited ability to switch to a new employer, and are generally unable to bring their families with them. Scholars and advocates have argued that this inability to change employers enables exploitation and makes it more difficult for workers to speak up about wage theft and poor working conditions. Concerns regarding worker exploitation have been present since the earliest days of the scheme, with the Australian Institute of Criminology undertaking research into the potential for worker exploitation in the pilot scheme in 2011. Several employers have been investigated or fined for underpaying and exploiting PALM scheme workers.
Workers under the PALM scheme often have less access to government programs and benefits than residents. The Australia Institute has published research showing that PALM workers are often taxed at a higher rate than Australian residents and have limited access to their superannuation. Some workers have been overcharged by their employers for services like accommodation and transport, and often have deductions made from their pay to cover the cost of their flights to Australia. Most PALM workers do not have access to Medicare and must take out private health insurance. Workers also face high remittance costs. Together, these costs limit the portion of workers' income that is ultimately saved or remitted.
Some Pacific leaders have raised concerns that the scheme primarily benefits Australian businesses and that the benefits to Pacific island nations and workers are exaggerated. PALM workers in Australia make up 9% of the Tongan working age population, 5% of the working age population of Vanuatu, and 3.4% of the working age population of Samoa. This has led Pacific countries to express concerns about brain drain and the effects of the PALM scheme on their domestic economies. Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu have all commenced reviews of their participation in offshore labour mobility schemes as a result of these concerns. Between 2018 and 2022, workers sent home $184 million in remittances, but paid $280 million in tax, rent, and day-to-day expenditures while in Australia.
The scheme has also received criticism for its rate of worker deaths and injuries. 29 participants died in the 2022-23 financial year and 233 critical incidents involving injuries to PALM scheme workers were recorded between 2020 and 2023. Between 2021 and 2023, between 10 and 14 participants died in boating and car accidents, 17 died due to medical conditions, and the cause of 17 additional deaths remained under investigation as of December 2023. In August 2024, representatives of the Fijian government announced plans to visit Australia to investigate working conditions after a Fijian woman died of a brain tumour while working at an Australian abattoir, with some former coworkers alleging that workers had faced restrictions around sick leave and access to healthcare.