"Labor’s PALM scheme is modern slavery"

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme between Australia and nine participating Pacific island nations is supposedly mutually beneficial… tens of thousands of temporary visa workers are denied basic labour rights, and that it is Australian bosses who are reaping all the benefits…

… “Each day is a race against time to meet our quotas ... if the order says packing/palletising for 500, we need to complete that 500 by day’s end. It’s a tough job”…

…PALM workers who arrive in Australia and find that they hate the work, or the employer isn’t paying the expected wages, are not allowed to quit…

Bosses also often control where PALM workers live, especially in remote areas. Rent can be deducted from workers’ wages for often substandard and overcrowded accommodation provided by employers, with paternalistic rules banning alcohol and drugs…

… women workers in the PALM scheme are required to undergo pregnancy tests before departing their home country and have resorted to covert abortions while working in Australia…

… Farms and abattoirs have repeatedly been the subject of exposés revealing abhorrent working conditions for mostly migrant workers…

Australian bosses make money from underpaying migrant workers and skimping on entitlements citizens would expect...