Pacific guest worker scheme expanded

[Stacey King]

ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA Updated December 21, 2011 09:44:05

A program which allows people from the Pacific to work for a limited period mainly in Australia's horticultural industry is to be expanded.

A three-year test scheme will enable people to work in the tourism, cane and cotton industries.

The original two-thousand-and-eight program allowed up to two-and-a-half thousand workers from Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu to participate in a three year pilot and work for up to seven months a year in the horticulture industry in regional Australia.

The program which kicks in from next July will be available to overseas workers from East Timor, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Presenter: Michael Cavanagh
Speaker: John Lee, Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive

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