Late Night Live — Full program podcast · ABC Australia

A review of the Pacific labour scheme in Australia, and rethinking the gay rights movement

·54 min·2 clips

Workers are tied to one employer and can't complain without risking being sent home.

David Marr interviews Peter Mayers from the Scanlon Foundation about the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility scheme affecting 32,000+ workers from Pacific islands. The episode examines how PALM evolved from a 2008 pilot for seasonal fruit picking to a 2018 long-term visa program now dominated by meat processing (11,000 workers). Despite regulations and welfare officers, the system exploits workers through employer-tied visas, inadequate housing, family separation, and lack of healthcare access. Mayers presents evidence of abuse alongside powerful stories of worker resilience and calls for reform including labor hire agency mobility.

As heard by us

A sharp look at labour, backlash, and the cost of calling policy a win-win.

Late Night Live spends this episode on two kinds of backlash: the strain around gay rights as Mardi Gras approaches, and the pressure on Pacific workers in Australia's PALM scheme.

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Why you'd press play

When policy talk meets real workers, the neat story starts to wobble very quickly indeed.

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