The Treasury Department's ability to manage the Labour Mobility Unit (LMU) was questioned today in parliament by the Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas.
An irate Sir Peter Ipatas revealed that 130 seasonal workers from Enga have been reported stranded in Australia following discrepancies with the hiring agency and the expiry of their temporary work visas.
Ipatas said the plight of these workers came to his attention in March this year. He then sought help at LMU as these workers were sent to Australia through the government’s seasonal labour work arrangements.
With no response from LMU, Ipatas took it on himself to visit the stranded workers in Australia last week and discovered that more than 130 Papua New Guineans in Tasmania have not been working for the last four months with all travel documents expired.
Ipatas is concerned that they are now stranded with no form of income and that they cannot return home without any money.
“We send them to work. Their families allow them to go down there thinking that they would make money and come home. Now these unfortunate workers are down there stranded without any money.
“When I approached the workers to try to get them back into the country, they said ‘How can we go back? Em samting blong sem ya (It’s a shameful thing). We haven’t made any money.’
He is calling on Prime Minister James Marape to intervene at the higher level to seek relief for the stranded workers.
He specifically wants the Prime Minister to talk and secure a deal for these workers to work an extra 3-4 months so they save some money to return home.
He also called on the government to fund the work of the liaison officers in Australia so they visit the seasonal workers on a regular basis to ensure their working conditions are okay.
Prime Minister James Marape in acknowledging the governor’s questions also warned of provinces and districts in the country running their own seasonal labour schemes outside the government runned-LMU to send workers to Australia.
He said the treasury department’s LMU is the mandated body by the government to run this program and provinces and districts should come through this office to send workers overseas.
Marape added that the government is looking at creating one coordination point where all districts and provinces come through this office in future for this purpose.
Ipatas called for a point of order and expressed frustration that the 130 men and women went through LMU but yet stranded and wanted the Prime Minister to intervene.
“The 130 went through this system but are now stranded. I am asking you to intervene. This system is not working. Wake up and fix it,” Ipatas said.
Marape then assured Ipatas of his intervention, even promising to make a call to the Australian High Commissioner today to look into this.