In 2021, the Australian Government made a series of announcements regarding visa programs to fill labour shortages in the agricultural sector. These included merging the existing Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) and Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) into the new Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme and, separately, creating a new Australian Agriculture visa program. This FlagPost examines how the new programs will operate and what the key differences between them will be.

Key announcements

The PALM scheme was first announced by the Government on 14 September 2021, with further details released by the Government on 23 November 2021. The merger of the existing SWP and PLS is currently underway, with a new single PALM scheme website established. The full combined scheme is scheduled to take effect on 4 April 2022.

The Australian Agriculture visa program (Ag visa) was announced on 16 June 2021. It was negotiated between the Liberal and National parties, aiming to compensate for the anticipated loss of UK backpacker workers from the sector as a result of the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement (2021) (which is not yet in force in Australia). The Agreement includes an exemption for UK working holiday makers from having to undertake a period of specified agricultural work to qualify for a second-year or third-year visa. The announcement stated the program would be aimed at South-East Asian countries and have similar settings to the SWP. A further announcement on 23 August 2021 also flagged a possible pathway to permanent residence.

Lead agency and country participation

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is the lead agency for both programs. DFAT currently manages the PLS and, under the PALM scheme, responsibility for the SWP is being transferred from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

Countries participate in the SWP and PLS by entering into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Australia; these countries are Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Each country has a labour sending unit to manage worker recruitment. Participation in the Ag visa will also be established via an MOU with partner countries, but, at the time of writing, no MOUs have yet been agreed. The DFAT fact sheet for the program dated 1 February 2022 states that ‘[a]dvanced discussions are being held with Indonesia’.

Both the SWP and PLS in their early phases had annual caps on the number of workers each country could send but the programs are now uncapped. The Ag visa will have country caps, which a DFAT official at a Senate Estimates hearing in February 2022 suggested would be about 1,000 workers, at least initially (page 69).

Visa settings

The SWP and PLS each use a different stream of the Temporary Work (International Relations) visa (subclass 403). The Government amended the Migration Regulations 1994 on 30 September 2021 to introduce the Ag visa as another stream of the subclass 403 visa.

Currently, SWP workers may be granted a visa for up to 3 years but may not spend more than 9 out of every 12 months in Australia. PLS workers may be granted a visa for between 1 and 3 years. The merged PALM scheme will broadly retain these streams and settings while extending the 3 year maximum time span to 4 years. The Ag visa will have matching settings.

Current SWP and PLS visa settings provide no pathway to a permanent visa. Visa holders cannot bring family members with them. The Ag visa as introduced has similar visa settings and conditions to the PLS. The DFAT fact sheet states that the Government ‘has committed to creating options for permanent residence pathways’ for Ag visa participants, but ‘this will involve further consultation and design work’.

Location and industries

Currently, employers based anywhere in Australia can employ SWP and PLS workers to undertake agricultural work. Work in other sectors must be located in regional and rural areas – for the SWP this is limited to work in the accommodation sector, while all sectors are open to the PLS.

For the Ag visa, a broader range of skill levels will be targeted (that is, including above the low-skilled and semi-skilled levels under the PALM scheme), although with an initial focus on low-skilled work. Eligible agricultural sectors will include ‘horticulture, dairy, wool, grains, fisheries (including aquaculture) and forestry, including support services and primary processing’, although ‘[t]he PALM scheme will remain the primary scheme for meeting agricultural workforce shortages’.

Approved Employers

Applicants must be sponsored by an Approved Employer, and visa holders must only work for their employer in that industry. A pilot program within the SWP allows employers in limited regions to move workers according to seasonal demand, and according to the PALM announcement and the Ag visa fact sheet, the programs will offer some flexibility for seasonal workers, with further details to be explored. This ‘portability’ will require workers’ consent but will be largely at the discretion of employers.

To become an Approved Employer under the PALM scheme or the Ag visa, a business must undergo an approval process including signing a Deed of Agreement with DFAT and becoming a temporary activities sponsor with the Department of Home Affairs. The Deeds of Agreement and employer guidelines for the SWP and PLS set out the detailed program arrangements and employer obligations including recruitment, worker support and protections.

Program support

Core elements of the management of the PLS, and to a lesser extent the SWP, are contracted to the Pacific Labour Facility (PLF), currently provided by Palladium. The PLF’s role includes working with labour sending units in participating countries, assisting Approved Employers in understanding their roles and responsibilities, supporting options for additional worker training and skills development, and providing support for workers. A review of the PLF, published in October 2020, recommended more alignment between the services provided under the PLS and SWP, which is to be consolidated under the PALM scheme.

At the Senate Estimates hearing in February 2022 DFAT officials indicated that Ag visa countries and workers may not receive the same level of support as the PALM scheme, which is partly funded through the overseas development program. However, officials also indicated that providers would be contracted to manage Ag visa services in both the sending countries and in Australia (page 70).