The Australian Government is trying to create better capacity for the movement of people to and from the Pacific.
Responding to a question by this newspaper on whether an open visa policy was likely to come into effect soon, given the successes of the Fiji-Australia Vuvale Partnership, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said they had implemented several initiatives as a pathway to Australia.
“I want to see more movement between the people of the Pacific and Australia,” she said.
“Whether it’s more PALM (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme) workers, or the pilot for families to accompany, or the Pacific Engagement Visa — which is a pathway to people coming to Australia, or under the Falepili Union with Tuvalu, a dedicated migration stream, we are working to try and make sure we have more capacity to have the movement of people to and from across the Pacific.”
Ms Wong said Australia valued the “wisdom” of Pacific people towards care.
“We want the PALM Scheme to work for you, your country and your people.
“For Australia, it isn’t just about the provision of labour that’s why we privilege the Pacific — not other countries — in terms of the access of this scheme.
“We represent working people. We always work to try and ensure workers are well treated, are properly paid, that their health and safety is observed, so we have sought to strengthen the protections for workers in the scheme, and we’ll continue to do that.”
She said they had worked with unions and employers to strengthen those protections and was appreciative of the contributions by diplomatic missions in Australia towards this work.
“We also want to improve skills acquisition. On previous visits, I talked about not just having agricultural workers but people who work in the aged-care sector and in the childcare sector, the early childhood sector. There are two reasons why that is very important — one is that is a growth area, and I think the Pacific Islands people bring great wisdom when it comes to caring and we value that.
“But it also is an area where people can be trained and are trained.
“Part of the pilot we’re doing for both aged-care and childcare includes Australian training to get them to what we call a ‘certificate three level’. That is an investment in your people.”
Ms Wong said through those investments, young Pacific islanders could carry their education wherever they went.
“We hope they want to work in Australia but if they don’t, they have that capacity to take that education elsewhere.
“The PALM program is part of our broader economic and people integration, and we want to make sure we keep reforming it to benefit your people and your economies.”
