Giving workers access to Medicare and making it easier for them to change jobs would help solve the scheme’s problems
The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme (Palm) is a crucial source of workers across regional Australia. About 32,000 people from nine Pacific nations and Timor-Leste work in Australia under Palm.
Over seven months of researching the scheme – interviewing workers, employers, country liaison officers, trade union organisers, community volunteers and academics, as well as digging into the data on it – I didn’t encounter anyone who thought it was a bad idea.