First PNG seasonal workers for 2021 on their way to Australia

 By Hon. IAN LING-STUCKEY, CMG. MP

Minister for Treasury

January 22nd 2020

Six Southern Highlands Province workers have left for Australia under the Seasonal Worker Programme.

This is the first group to be recruited in 2021 and the first to leave since borders closed in early 2020 due to COVID-19.

I congratulate Governor Powi and the team from Southern Highlands Province (SHP) for this important milestone.

We have been working hard to get access to Australia and New Zealand since they announced a restart of their labour schemes after COVID put them on hold in March 2020.

This is our first group of workers out since the COVID-19 shutdown.

It is an important milestone, and a big achievement for Southern Highlands Province.

These workers have been placed with a poultry farm in Queensland.

Their time with this employer will not just help themselves and their families through their earnings, but will give them skills to help entrepreneurs in SHP build PNG’s poultry industry.

These men are ambassadors for PNG and their success will lead to more placements in future.

I wish them the very best.

All citizens of PNG are supporting them in their endeavours.

While this recruitment is small, more would follow as the confidence of Australian state governments builds.

We are already exploring charter flights to some Australian states and hope to have more announcements shortly.

This is just the beginning.

The PNG Labour Mobility Unit has been working closely with districts and provinces to ready workers for jobs in Australia and New Zealand.

Our new approach has a strong focus on matching farmers and other workers with industry in Australia and New Zealand.

We are using these programs to upskill our workers so they can contribute meaningfully to the development of industry in PNG.

We want to become the agriculture centre of the Pacific.

The skills our farmers learn overseas will help us develop the quality and consistency of produce that domestic and foreign buyers expect.

These moblisations are just the beginning for PNG.

It is a small start – but we know we can use these mobilisations to reassure the Australian and New Zealand Governments that we have the processes in place to ensure our workers arrive at their destination COVID-free.

We are running our own one-week quarantine process in Papua New Guinea before they leave.

We had mandatory testing prior to departure before it was introduced by Australia.

We have put in place the strictest COVID worker protocols of any Pacific island country.

The new regional recruitment model has set PNG up for success.

Employers are extremely supportive of our new approach.

Once we have approvals from State governments to bring larger numbers of workers in charter flights, we know there will be high demand for our workers.

We have worked hard over the last year to put in place systems and processes to ensure PNG sends the best workers in the Pacific.

We are ready.

We ask Australian State Governments to work with us and lift caps and restrictions.

We will deliver the best, COVID-free workers to your employers.

I wish these six workers the very best for their time in Australia.

And I look forward to further announcements and larger numbers of workers leaving PNG for placements in Australia and New Zealand in the coming months.