Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM)
What is the PALM scheme?
Pacific labour mobility is central to the Australian Government’s commitment to build a stronger Pacific family.
It delivers jobs for Pacific and Timor-Leste workers, enabling them to develop skills, earn income and support their families back home. Pacific labour mobility also helps create strong links between people, businesses, and communities, fostering deeper connections between Australia and our neighbours.
Pacific and Timor-Leste workers help to fill labour gaps in regional and rural Australia, and agriculture nationally. This offers Australian employers access to reliable, productive workers who also contribute to the cultural and economic vibrancy of communities across Australia.
The wellbeing of Pacific and Timor-Leste workers is a priority for the Australian, Pacific and Timor-Leste governments. All workers are protected by the same workplace rights and laws as Australian workers, and additional measures are in place to support the wellbeing of workers while they live and work in Australia.
Countries currently participating in Pacific labour mobility are Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme
The PALM scheme is an important temporary migration program to address unskilled, low-skilled and semi-skilled labour shortages across rural and regional Australia, and agriculture nationally. Under the scheme, Australian businesses can hire workers from Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste when there are not enough local workers available. Once approved to participate in the PALM scheme, employers can recruit workers to fill positions for seasonal placements (short-term) of up to nine months or longer-term placements of between one and four years (long-term). Seasonal and longer-term workers can be employed in any sector and in all regional and rural postcodes, while all Australian businesses in the agriculture sector can participate in the scheme.
The PALM scheme is managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) with the support of the Pacific Labour Facility (PLF).
Icomply as an approved employer can assist with access to workers in the above mentioned pacific regions
There are two types of Programs that operate under the PALM Scheme, which give you access to short term workers up to 9 Months know as the seasonal worker program ( SWP) or long term workers of up to 4 years under the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS)
