Workshop participants at Pasifika House, Brisbane, 9 December 2022. Photo- DPA
Workshops on safety and wellbeing of Pacific workers in Australia
Throughout 2022, researchers from ANU’s Department of Pacific Affairs have been investigating the safety and wellbeing experiences of men and women who are working in Australia with the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
In December 2022 they held two workshops with stakeholders to discuss the preliminary research findings. They presented the key themes arising from the interviews which had been conducted with over 100 workers, employers, and other stakeholders. They also unpacked the results of an online survey that had been completed by over 300 PALM scheme workers.
The research took place in five regions of Australia where PALM scheme workers are located: Cairns and Caboolture in Queensland, Wagga Wagga and Tamworth in New South Wales and Naracoorte in South Australia. This included workers and employers in the horticulture, meat processing and aged care sectors.
There are now over 31,500 workers in Australia under the scheme from Timor Leste and ten Pacific Island nations. This research provides important new data about the experience of workers as the PALM scheme continues to increase worker numbers and reform its governance arrangements.
The workshop presentation is available here: Safety and Wellbeing of Pacific Workers in the PALM Scheme.
The research report will be published in 2023.
Contact Ms Lindy Kanan and Dr Judy Putt for more information on this project.
