Reforming access to superannuation for pacific Australia labour mobility workers

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme allows employers in rural and regional Australia to employ low skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour from nine Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste to address labour shortages. The PALM scheme is arguably of great strategic importance to Australia since it helps to build and maintain positive relationships with participating countries and the Pacific region more broadly due to the enhanced economic prosperity that arises from PALM workers taking skills learnt in Australia back to their communities. Being employed in Australia entitles PALM workers to superannuation contributions at the appropriate rate of ordinary time earnings. These amounts can be claimed on expiration of the worker’s visa once they have returned to their home country, but the process of repatriating these funds is difficult and time consuming. Indeed, many PALM workers under the scheme are not aware the funds can be repatriated, leaving millions of dollars unclaimed.

The objective of this article is to recommend policy reforms to make it easier for PALM workers to claim their superannuation once their visa expires based on quantitative and qualitative factors such as economic costs compared with benefits, the ‘right thing to do’ and what stakeholders may consider acceptable. The analysis reveals that allowing PALM workers to have their superannuation paid directly into their own fund in their home country while working in Australia would be the most acceptable option compared options such as rolling over superannuation from Australia to their home country or being paid salary and wages in lieu of superannuation.