5000 Fijians find work in Australia under PA

A TOTAL of 5000 Fijians have so far gone across to Australia to work under the Australian Government’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme (PALM), said Chargé d’Affaires of the Australian High Commission in Fiji Stuart Watts.
“Fijians have made a huge contribution to the Australian economy,” he said.
“We talk about Australia’s support to Fiji during COVID but those workers were the lifeblood for us during COVID because we couldn’t find staff in a lot of sectors, particularly in the agriculture
sector and the meat processing sector.”
At a post-budget forum in Suva over the weekend, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad acknowledged the “tremendous support” made to Fiji by Australia and New Zealand, particularly during the pandemic and said it was Fiji’s responsibility to ensure that finances were prudently managed.
“These are funds that come from their taxpayers and it is our responsibility to ensure that we manage our finances in a very, very prudent manner,” Prof Prasad said.
Mr Watts said Australia was privileged to have been allowed to help Fiji and that Fiji returned the favour in the role played by Fijian seasonal workers.
“Some of those Fijian workers were the lifeblood for some of our businesses. They kept our businesses afloat and that’s part of the Pacific family helping each other.”
He said PALM is currently being strengthened by reforms recently announced by the Australian Government.
“It’s a minimum 30 hours a week that workers will get so that they will make sure that they’re always getting that regular stream of income so that we can try and deal with any concerns of major deductions where they’re caught short.
“So these are the things we’re focused on – welfare, making sure they’ve got enough money in their pockets and they can send that money home for their families.”