The report, part of a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry, has found the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM)) scheme is so lopsided it could damage diplomatic and economic relationships, rather than enhance them.

Similarly, the expansion of the scheme to fill shortages in the health and aged care sectors is luring medical professionals away from the health systems of workers’ home nations, leaving them desperately under-resourced.

The scheme generates around a billion dollars a year, yet just $184 million makes it back to the homelands of workers.

The report makes three recommendations:

• Ensuring a fair share of money makes it back to workers and their families.
• Improving the rights and conditions of workers, to ensure they’re not at risk of modern slavery.
• Re-examining the expansion of the scheme – originally designed to fill seasonal agricultural roles, like fruit picking – into Australia’s care sectors.

“When the PALM scheme was established, it was lauded as a win-win for Australia and its participating neighbours,” said Morgan Harrington, Research Manager at The Australia Institute.

“But more than three quarters of the money earned in Australia stays in Australia. This is desperately unfair and not in the spirit of what the scheme was set up to do.

“These workers are now a vital part of our economy, particularly in rural Australia. Without them, our meat processing, fruit picking, aged and health care sectors would be in trouble.

“For their part, the workers who leave their families for months or years are forced to hand over a large portion of their earnings in tax and expenses.

“They don’t get Medicare. They often struggle to access their super. They face severe restrictions on their working rights and movements. The cost of living crisis has made things even worse.

“The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner have identified the PALM scheme as a modern slavery risk. This is shameful for a nation like Australia.

“There are many ways to improve the scheme which would help, not harm, Australia’s Pacific neighbours and Timor Leste and, more importantly, give workers a fair go.”