- The Strategist - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au -
Reader response: Pacific labour mobility
Posted By Anthony Bergin on December 3, 2014 @ 12:30
…backpackers are currently rewarded for three months work on a farm by a second year’s visa…It has been incredibly effective in channelling an ever-growing number of backpackers onto farms. Pacific seasonal workers simply can’t compete with backpackers. The number of backpackers who applied for a second-year visa on the basis of farm work in 2005-06 roughly equals the number of Pacific SWP workers last year. But in the meantime the number of backpackers on farms has shot up to over 40,000! No wonder the SWP is languishing. If Australia is serious about the SWP…the two most important things we could do are reform the backpacker scheme and increase the SWP cap. Both together are important. Increasing the cap on its own will achieve nothing. Reforming the backpacker scheme and not increasing the cap will quickly make the SWP cap binding.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/reader-response-pacific-labour-mobility/
[1] Image: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/10198405645_5a2b28df66_z.jpg
[2] latest post: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/rethinking-australias-economic-role-in-the-pacific/
[3] PACER Plus negotiations: https://www.dfat.gov.au/fta/pacer/
[4] Seasonal Workers Program: http://aid.dfat.gov.au/countries/pacific/rp/Pages/initiative-labour-mobility-seasonal-worker-program.aspx
[5] invited Fiji to join: http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2014/jb_mr_141031a.aspx?ministerid=4
[6] points out: http://devpolicy.org/pacer-plus-and-labour-mobility-how-to-do-a-deal-20141124/
[7] the PAC and Samoan Quota Scheme: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/live/pacificaccess/
[8] Anthony Bergin: https://www.aspi.org.au/about-aspi/aspi-staff/executive/anthony-bergin
[9] ashokboghani: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashokbo/10198405645