The government will expand a plan allowing Pacific Islanders to work in Australia to include aged care jobs to help fill tens of thousands of job vacancies in the crisis-ridden sector.
Premier Anthony Albanese strongly backed the expansion of the Australia Pacific Labor Mobility Scheme after former NSW Premier and head of aged care provider Hammondcare Mike Baird urged the government to let Pacific Island workers fill jobs in areas where there were critical shortages.
International and Pacific Development Minister Pat Conroy announced in Question Time on Tuesday that the government would expand the plan to include care for the elderly.
International and Pacific Development Minister Pat Conroy. Credit: Joe Armao
“During the recent highly successful Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji, I visited the Australia Pacific Coalition facility in Suva with the Prime Minister,” he said.
“We met 40 enthusiastic women who were trained to work in aged care facilities in regional Queensland, from Mackay to Toowoomba.”
He also said the government was expanding the plan to reduce travel costs for employers, who pay upfront costs for workers, allowing Pacific workers to bring in family members and improving protections against worker exploitation.
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The Australian Workers Union is calling on the government to impose protections after MADEC, a prominent PALM labor recruitment firm, was hit with license restrictions after returning $70,000 in wages deducted from accommodation workers . AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said many deductions were “clearly wrong”.
“Most PALM workers work more than 30 hours a week and can earn more than $800. But their take home is less than $100 a week after dubious deductions for accommodation and transportation,” he said .
The salary deduction allegations were aired in a Senate inquiry led by Labor senator Tony Sheldon.
“This saga epitomizes why we should be wary of calls to significantly increase worker migration,” he said.
“Unless unions are empowered to have greater involvement in migrant worker programs, these stories of exploitation will continue.”