Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme

In a 2024 report, the New South Wales Anti-Slavery Commissioner highlighted poor working conditions and practices of modern slavery facilitated by the scheme.

[10][4] 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.

[11][12] 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.

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.

[11] 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.

[2] 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.

[2] 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.

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.

[26] 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.

This has led Pacific countries to express concerns about brain drain and the effects of the PALM scheme on their domestic economies.