Participants in Australia’s temporary worker program for the Pacific and Timor-Leste – the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme – generate almost $1 billion in economic value, but less than $200 million ends up going home with them. This submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration’s Inquiry into the value of skilled migration to Australia anlayses the scant amount of data that has been published on the economic value of the PALM scheme to show that the broad majority of the money earned by PALM workers stays in Australia. As the scheme expands beyond seasonal employment in agriculture and into the care industries, this submission argues that now is the time to address its underlying problems so that everyone working in Australia is given a fair go.