The Seasonal Worker Programme now attracts over 6,000 workers each year from the Pacific and Timor-Leste to Australia to work on Australian farms. From 2015 to 2017, the World Bank carried out a comprehensive evaluation examining the impacts of the scheme. Its new report, Maximizing the Development Impacts from Temporary Migration: Recommendations for Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme, examines the benefits and costs of the scheme for households in the Pacific, as well as the experiences of workers in Australia, and includes recommendations for reform.

This public forum will launch and discuss the report.

Speakers include:

Senator the Hon Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Minister for International Development and the Pacific

Senator Claire Moore, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific

Jesse Doyle, Social Protection Economist, World Bank

Michel Kerf, Country Director - Papua New Guinea & Pacific Islands, World Bank

Michael Fryszer, Managing Director, Connect Group

Melissa Denning, Assistant Labour Attache, Embassy of Timor-Leste