A broad coalition of industry groups, unions, NGOs and statutory bodies has published an open letter calling on the NSW Government to regulate the labour hire firms that employ large numbers of working holiday makers and PALM visa holders. The letter has been published amid a hotly contested debate over Australia’s national migration levels.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party states that it will cut migration to Australia by 570,000 from current levels, including by deporting “visa overstayers”. In response, it is expected that the Albanese government will soon announce a revised migration policy focused on people who stay in Australia after their visa expires.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed that his department has already begun to slow the approval process for working holiday maker visa applications. “They are still being processed, but they are being processed more slowly than they were previously,” he said.
Industry bodies have pointed out that migrants – including those in Australia on a temporary basis – are essential to the functioning of the Australian economy.
Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Innes Willox has said he is “enormously concerned” about proposed cuts to migration.
He said temporary workers, including those on working holiday visas, are “central” to the economy, particularly in regional Australia. Mr Willox explained that “Business don’t need permanent labour; they need temporary labour to fill a need and that is where temporary workers play a really important role.”
Meanwhile, Chief Executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, said that working holiday makers “provide a vital surge workforce for areas of the economy. They travel around and spend money. They are contributing to the tourism economy.”
Yet a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into the modern slavery risks faced by temporary migrant workers has found that a “lack of labour hire regulation has left many of these workers vulnerable to the exploitative actions of unscrupulous employers.” It heard “extensive evidence” of “serious violations, amounting to modern slavery,” by some employers of temporary migrants.
Blueberry farms in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley are the subject of particular concern, but the open letter makes it clear that these risks are not confined to one region or industry: “They exist in any industry that relies on labour hire: the cleaning industry in Western Sydney, construction in Wollongong, security in Newcastle, and in many other industries right across New South Wales.”
New South Wales is one of three states in Australia in which labour hire firms are not regulated. This means that unscrupulous operators can still operate in NSW, even if they have been barred from doing business in other states. In 2023, all of Australia’s states and territories formed a working group with the Commonwealth to develop a national scheme for regulating labour hire firms, but the process collapsed in 2025 with the withdrawal of support from Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.
The NSW parliamentary inquiry recommended that the NSW Government “take urgent action to implement a labour hire licensing scheme as soon as possible.” Victoria’s Labour Hire Authority was cited as a possible model. The inquiry also recommended that the Working Holiday Maker program be reviewed, “to ensure that the safety and well-being of workers is prioritised.”
As national debate maintains its narrow focus on the quantity of migrants, the evidence coming out of NSW shows the acute need for reforms to how temporary migrants – who are legally entitled to work in Australia – are treated by employers.
