AUSTRALIA & N.Z. ASKED TO INCREASE LABOUR MOBILITY NUMBERS
Joseph Mahanua Supervising Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs and External Trade. Photo credit: SIBC.
Solomon Islands has asked the Australia and New Zealand Governments to increase the number of people they engage to work under the labour mobility schemes in their countries as part of the PACER Plus negotiations.
The Labour Mobility scheme has been engaging people from the Pacific Islands to work in horticulture farms in Australia and New Zealand.
Supervising Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs and External Trade Joseph Mahanua told SIBC News yesterday the discussions also wants Australia to increase the number of seasonal labourers and expand into other sectors apart from horticulture.
“There’s discussion on a negotiation called the PACER Plus where within that process we have asked Australia and New Zealand to increase, on the one hand, the number they number they can take for the whole Pacific plus broadening the sectors in which workers can work, not just in horticulture or maybe looking at areas such as the tourism industry and well as trades.”