WEBVTT - Inside the Australian scheme accused of modern slavery 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:06.200 It is better to hand money in Australia because let's 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:11.360 say creep all dam Invaratu for fortnit. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:13.040 If you live. 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.759 One year for one year, he's more than you work 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:18.640 in Fronoto for ten his. 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.520 That's Enoch from Vanuatu. He came to Australia on a 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.920 temporary work visa, hoping to earn enough money to change 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:30.840 his life back home. Just like Enoch, tens of thousands 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.279 of workers from the Pacific and Team or Less Day 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.320 have come to Australia through Palm the Pacific Australia Labor 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.960 Mobility scheme. The government sells it as a triple win. 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:45.480 Workers own Australian wages, Australian employers fell jobs they say 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.680 they can't feel locally, and money flows back to families 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:53.080 and economies across the region. But Morgan Harrington's been investigating 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.960 cases where workers say they were exploited, underpaid and overcharged 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:02.160 by their employer for housing that was falling apart and overcrowded. 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.000 Eleven people and three dead rins. 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:09.440 Yes, how much money putting handbreak fifty one person? 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.039 And because a workers visa is tied to one employer, 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.320 leaving can mean losing your legal status. 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:20.319 And when they raise their consent, they just say to 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.959 them that if they don't want to work, they will 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:25.200 send them back. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.760 I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven am today 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.800 post doctoral research manager at the Australia Institute, Morgan Harrington, 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.319 and why the Palm scheme is ripe for exploitation and 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:47.320 why some say it's a modern slavery risk. It's Monday, 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:55.960 February sixteen. Morgan. Could you take us back to how 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.920 this all started and what is the Palm scheme? 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.120 With the border reopening as part of the government's national Plan, 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.640 can the Minister update the Senate on how workers from 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.560 the Pacific and Team or less Day are contributing to 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.040 Australia's rural economy helping so. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.640 The Palm Scheme was formed in twenty twenty two with 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:19.959 the merger of two previous schemes. Basically, what it means 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.720 is that people from nine different Pacific Island nations and 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.040 Team or Less Day can come to work to Australia, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.800 but only on a temporary basis and only in jobs 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.160 that are classified as low skilled. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.519 The changes follow extensive public consultation with Pacific island countries 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.400 and our domestic industries, which will see a consolidated, improved 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.400 and more efficient Pacific worker scheme benefiting employers, workers and 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:47.679 participating countries. 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.200 The Palm Scheme's grown a lot, from just under six 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.519 thousand people in twenty nineteen and now there's over thirty 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.600 two thousand. The vast majority of people on the Palm 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.600 Scheme work in agri culture or meat processing, but growing 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.120 numbers are working in hospitality and aged care. And so 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.880 for a program that's supposed to be for low skilled 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.400 workers to work on a temporary basis, it's being used 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.920 more and more in industries that are very much not 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.120 temporary and which skills are needed for. 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.040 The Palm scheme will enable rural and regional businesses to 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.000 engage the right workers more easily where and when they 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:27.600 need them, alleviating. 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.000 Now, the Palm Scheme generates just under a billion dollars 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.920 in economic value, but over eighty percent of that stays 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:40.400 in Australia, so less than twenty percent is actually remitted 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.120 to the Pacific. So if the Australian government wants to 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.640 say that this is a win win, then we need 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.920 to make sure that the economic benefits are more equitably distributed. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:51.520 Could you explain to us how the visa is tied 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:52.600 to one employer. 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.760 So if you apply to come and work as part 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.920 of the Palm program, you get what's called an approved employer, 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.880 That is the one business that you are allowed to 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.920 work for, so they sponsor your visa and your status 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.160 in the country depends on you staying to work for 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:15.360 that employer for the duration of your Palm visa. If 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.360 you want to leave, technically you can apply through your 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.840 employer to the government for a transfer. But when you're 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:28.120 talking about people with no experience in Australia, maybe limited 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.720 language skills, who have promised their family that they're going 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.760 to come here and earn money, it's not realistic to 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.320 think that they are going to go to their employer 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.840 to complain and hope that their employer will go to 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.159 the government and go through a bureaucratic process so that 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:44.440 maybe they can move. 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:49.320 You've been investigating this scheme for a while now. One 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.039 of the places that you went to to look into 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.279 this was Leton, a small country town in New South Wales. 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.520 Why did you go there and what did you find? 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:04.440 Well, look, Laton has a very long history of welcoming 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.359 new migrants, it's a big agricultural community. It's a place 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.599 where people who are new to Australia can find work 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.840 more easily than maybe they can in Sydney or Melbourne. 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.680 I spoke to a group of people from the Solomon Islands, 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.760 all of whom had made the very difficult decision to 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.240 walk away from their employer. Now that's technically a breach 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:31.840 of their visa, but they told me stories of being 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:37.000 put in accommodation with eleven people living upstairs and eleven 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.960 people living downstairs, and being charged one hundred and fifty 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:45.400 dollars for the privilege another elevend people eleven bit on 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:51.040 each floor. Yeah, on upstairs, at eleven downstairs, eleven upstairs. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.599 With a fund three thousand plus they tech in one week. 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.720 Then there's no early privacy there because we'll cut it out. 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:01.360 We're hip up together. 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.920 In one I spoke a lot with a woman named 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:10.159 Emelda Davis, who is an Australian South Sea islander. She 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:15.039 works a lot with Palm scheme workers, and she recounted 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.120 to me a story of men who were living in 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.120 a rusted out caravan in North Queensland. Now this is 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.839 in a place called Tully, which has the highest annual 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.239 rainfall anywhere in Australia. But the floor of the caravan 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:35.239 had rusted out, and so when the waters rose, snakes 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.080 were crawling through the rusted out holes in the bottom 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:38.719 of the caravan. 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.360 The river would rise and the water would come through 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:44.480 the rust in the bottom of the caravan. They had 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.440 five men in a caravan, and then the snakes would 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.440 come through the rust of the floor into the caravan. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.800 Like they don't even live like that in Vana wat It, 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.160 but yet they're paying top dollar to sleep in a caravan. 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:01.160 Poor accommodation is a really common source of complete Quite 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.840 often the accommodation is provided by the employer, and that 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.120 can enhance what is already or can already be a 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.600 really unequal power relationship. If you work on a farm 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.480 or a factory and at night, your employer is transporting 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.680 you in a vehicle owned by the employer to accommodation 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.200 owned by the employer, and the employer is permitted to 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:28.520 make deductions from your pay for every one of those privileges, 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.560 the transportation, the accommodation, maybe even the furniture in your house. 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.320 Maybe they've given you a mobile phone and are deducting 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.720 money from your pay to make up for it. Okay, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.160 so how much would you have left after the deductions? 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:43.840 How much would you get paid? 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.880 Three hundred dollars for how much a week before TODA dollars? 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:58.280 Hearing stories of people left with less than one hundred 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.880 dollars after working forty hours a week sadly all too common. 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:07.840 Those kinds of reasons are leaving an estimated seven thousand 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:12.200 people to disengage from the program and try their luck 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:13.559 in Australia on their own. 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:28.360 Coming up, Can the government fix the palm scheme? Morgan 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.040 is part of your investigations. You also went to Vanuatu, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.960 which is part of the scheme. What did you find 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:35.560 out there? 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:40.920 So when you travel through Portvilla often you're in a 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:45.560 public minivan and every conversation I had it was one 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.760 of the first things people would bring up, Oh, you're 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.080 from Australia, I've worked in Australia, or I've got a 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.559 brother or a friend who's gone to work in Australia. 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.360 It's something people really want to do because they can 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.280 see that they there is the promise of earning the 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:05.160 Australian dollar, and it's also something that even people in 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.400 relatively high paying white collar jobs are doing. So I 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.560 spoke to a senior public servant who told me he 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.360 had colleagues who were choosing to leave the vanahay Tou 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.040 public service and come to work in Australia, you know, 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.600 maybe as a fruit picker or a meat processor. And 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:28.280 so you know, it's creating a labor drain. Places like 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:32.640 Vanahaytu are losing a large number of people to Australia 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.320 and New Zealand, and that has economic consequences and it 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:37.760 has social consequences. 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.400 So I was in the tomato farm for two years 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.959 and I did one year in Abatua with the Miadworks. 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:49.520 But I spoke to a young man in Vanahaytu who 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.800 had been in Australia for four years as part of 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.120 the Palm scheme. He worked at a tomato farm and 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.000 he told me that he saw a couple of injuries. 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.320 His arm was already jammed inside the machine, jumped up 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.040 his ends classic snapped it in half. We all ran 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.120 towards him and chick if he was okay. Well, pieces 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:12.400 said he couldn't fill his arm. 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.600 It was called his health insurance didn't cover that injury 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.520 and he was basically taken to an airport and flown 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.520 back to Vanahuaytu to deal with it there. 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.040 So his health assurance was not the one that could 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.240 cover broken out. They just quickly take him back to 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.559 the nearest airport, flew into the available international airport and 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:33.760 taken back to the country. 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.160 And this goes to the heart of the problems with 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.599 this game. If we want to have people in Australia 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:43.199 contributing to our economy, paying taxes in our country, they 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.800 don't get access to many care and we don't give 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.720 them the help that they need if they get injured 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:49.400 or fall sick. 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.240 This palm scheme, it was set up under the Morrison government, 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.040 but now it's with the Albanese government. Do they know 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.480 about all of these problems and what if they said 0:10:59.480 --> 0:10:59.920 about it? 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:05.600 Look, the problems with the scheme are no secret now. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:11.160 In twenty twenty five, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Contemporary 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:16.160 Forms of Slavery released a report based on his investigations 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:19.720 in Australia, and he found that the Palm scheme poses 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.720 a risk of modern slavery to people from the Pacific 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:27.000 and team or less Day and that echoed findings from 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:32.600 the New South Wales government's Anti Slavery Commissioner, who also 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.840 found that the program poses a risk of modern slavery. 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.880 Now that's led to New South Wales parliamentary inquiry which 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:44.920 is ongoing. But these stories of problems with the scheme 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.000 are rife and the solutions are really not that hard. 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.280 They basically come down to giving workers the right to 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.079 leave an employer if they have a problem with them. 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.520 So you say that it's relatively simple to try and 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.160 fix the scheme, then why hasn't it been done? And 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.720 do you think this type of program is basically just 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:09.400 always ripe for abuse. 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.840 Look, I think this program has become a source of 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:17.960 contention and if it's going to continue to expand, and 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.640 if it is going to allow Australia to form good 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.400 relationships with the Pacific, then we need to get it 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.120 right now. And the least that we can do is 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.520 treat people who have the right to work in Australia 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.280 the same way that other people who are allowed to 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.600 work in Australia are treated. And the right to choose 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.880 your employer is fundamental to the idea of a free 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:44.920 labor market. So really, if employees were able to vote 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.280 with their feet and leave an employer who might be 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.280 doing the wrong thing. There would be a domino effect 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:53.160 on the other kinds of problems that you see with 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:57.160 this game. We pride ourselves as being the nation of 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.280 a fair go and we look down our nose at 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.280 countries in the Middle East that have really unfair guest 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:08.199 worker programs. But we have many of the same kinds 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:12.000 of problems with the Palm scheme right here in our backyard. 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.000 What are these seven thousand people who've left the scheme 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:17.160 doing now? 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.720 So, what I found when I spoke to disengaged workers 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.360 in Leyton is that because of the region's history of 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.160 welcoming new migrants, they're able to find work and they're 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.160 able to find people who will help them survive. Now, 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:37.840 often that means taking piece work rates, maybe picking oranges. 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.000 So rather than being paid per hour, you're paid per 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.040 orange that you pick. Now, the people that I spoke 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:50.040 to preferred this to being ripped off by their formal 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.080 Palm scheme employer in another part of the country. Are 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:53.880 you picking orange? 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.600 Is like just depend on you? Nos are like what's 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.120 and stun behind you and force you do this faster 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:01.959 fusser like that. 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.040 But Gennipiicorus is free to do anything we want. 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.319 If you want to rest, they sit down. You want 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:10.480 to go home, just go home. 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.880 But it puts them in a very vulnerable position because 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.680 you know, maybe there are no oranges to pick this week, 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.040 or maybe the work drives up for another reason, and 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.920 so they're living a very precarious existence. And of course, 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:28.600 without a proper long term visa, they could be made 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:34.320 to leave the country at any time. But while I 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.360 was in Vanawatu, I spoke to the head of their 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:42.240 labor Commission and she told me that she regularly has 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.600 people knocking on the door of her office saying, I'm 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.400 not sure what's happened to my family member. They've gone 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.080 to Australia to work on this program. I haven't heard 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.680 from them. They didn't come back when they were supposed to. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.240 Can you imagine how heartbreaking that would be. And as 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.080 she also said to me, even for the ones who 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.280 stick with their employer and do what they're supposed to, 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:09.440 they're not treated fairly. And as she pointed out, people 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.520 are not just workers, they're people. So if we want 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.680 to invite them into our country to work, then we 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.040 need to treat them as people. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.080 Morgan, thank you so much for explaining it all. 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:23.520 To us today. 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:25.280 Thanks for having me on, Nicole. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.320 You can find more of Morgan's reporting on Palmdorf, a 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.320 mini series for the Follow the Money podcast by the 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:49.720 Australian Institute. Also in the news, the Liberal Party's new 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.920 leadership team is backing one of the old policies that 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.960 saw them lose the last election, nuclear power. Deputy Liberal 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.640 Leader Jane Hume wouldn't be drawn on specifics, but says 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.440 Australia needs to be open minded about lifting a ban 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.880 on nuclear energy if it wants to bring down emissions 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:11.320 and reduce power prices. Leader Angus Taylor has also announced 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.440 he won't be backing any changes to capital gains tax 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.560 and New South Wales residents have been granted an extra 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.120 public holiday for ANZAC Day this year. Premier Chris Mins 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:25.760 has announced a two year trial public holiday on the 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.120 Monday following ANZAC Day, which falls on a weekend in 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.280 twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven. WA and The 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.920 Act are the only other states where residents get the 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.880 extra day off. I'm Nicole Johnston. This is seven am. 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:39.680 Thanks for listening.