PALM scheme workers

Question

What is the current number of PALM scheme workers in Australia across all sectors? a. Has the agriculture sector worker number recovered from the drop from 21,915 to 16,705 following the 30-hour minimum hours requirement? What is the current figure? b. Has the Government given any further consideration to an extended averaging period (8 to 12 weeks) as requested by industry? c. Has the childcare educator expansion been progressed? What is the current status of the accreditation and Foreign Affairs portfolio issues that were unresolved as at February 2025? d. What actions does the Department take to chase up workers who disengage from their registered employer? Is there any mechanism by which to refund fees to the employer? e. The re-engagement taskforce has been operating since June 2025. How many workers have been successfully redeployed following disengagement from their original employer? f. What are the most common reasons for worker disengagement? g. How many monitoring visits has the Department conducted in the past year? What compliance issues were identified? h. How many accommodation providers have been removed from the approved accommodation register following compliance failures? i. Has the Department identified any cases of workers being subjected to conditions that raise modern slavery or forced labour concerns? How many have been referred to the Australian Border Force or AFP? j. What is the current status of the Latrobe Council accommodation compliance trial? Has the model been expanded to other councils? k. The PALM system collects mandatory data fields on worker welfare and monitoring. Is that data published in any form? How can I obtain access summary statistics?

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-001820.pdf (opens in a new tab)