Australia launched its inaugural Pacific Engagement Visa ballot on 3 June, with Papua New Guinea receiving the largest allocation. Charlotte Armstrong breaks down the implications for PNG’s business and labour force.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong remarked on the positive response to the Pacific Engagement Visa during her 2022 visit to the Solomon Islands. Credit: Julia Whitwell ADF/DFAT

Australia’s new Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) should prompt Papua New Guinea businesses to think about how to use Australian visas to upskill their workers, according to Chakriya Bowman of PNG skills-training consultancy WokRedi Solutions.

“I don’t think PNG has a skill shortage. I think it has a shortage of highly specific skills and a lack of training opportunities. And those two things are stopping us from developing the younger people.”

The ballot for the PEV opened on 3 June, promising up to 3,000 permanent residency visas per year for citizens of ten Pacific countries – including at least 1,350 for Papua New Guineans. The new visa will run alongside existing programs for the region, including the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

Bowman, formerly Director of Pacific Economic Growth at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, notes the PEV comes at a time of low Papua New Guinean participation in Australia’s education system. She says the scheme’s focus on skills and development can help bridge this gap.

“There are more Nepalese living in Australia than there are Papua New Guineans and Nepal is one of the largest users of Australian education in the world … it’s absolutely ridiculous that there isn’t more engagement from PNG with Australia’s education system,” says Bowman.

Opportunities and skills

The PEV sits within a series of programs designed to improve labour migration both within Papua New Guinea and beyond its borders.

Bowman notes that this visa is attempting to capture a market of graduates and workers who are skilled but cannot find work in their areas within PNG, due to lack of available entry level opportunities.

“It’s not a skilled visa program,” says Bowman, “but it’s for people who have skills that can earn a good living in Australia and repatriate with their families. I think it’s an attempt to increase that skilled labour mobility between Australia and the Pacific.”

Looking outward and inward

Whilst Bowman doesn’t think the program, at its current scale, will encourage a ‘brain drain’ from PNG, it does prompt questions about how PNG’s business community can find ways to best utilise the talent at its disposal.

Bowman theorises that the key lies within recent graduates and workers missing essential experience, who can benefit from spending a period working in the Australian economy.

“I don’t think PNG has a skill shortage. I think it has a shortage of highly specific skills and a lack of training opportunities. And those two things are stopping us from developing the younger people.”

Bowman cites the Australian Work and Holidaymaker program, as well as other Australian schemes for their potential to allow graduates the chance to gain ‘bridging’ skills.

“There’s an eternal challenge between what university can realistically do and what a workforce actually needs. The simple fact is, in Papua New Guinea, we don’t have much bridging. It’s a lucky few going through to build great careers and be in high demand. But there’s a large group of people who are not getting those opportunities.”

Australia’s Pacific Engagement Visa in a nutshell

The Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) is a permanent residency program visa into Australia that caters specifically to the Pacific region.

This new visa structure – different from the previous Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme (PALM) – will be delivered by ballot, where those who enter the ballot and are successful will be eligible to apply for the visa.

The ballot registration opened on 3 June 2024 and will close on 1 August 2024. Results will be drawn progressively following the end of the ballot. Applicants who are not selected for 2024 will have to reregister for the 2025 ballot.

These permanent residency visas will include a single partner and dependent children, though all relevant parties must have valid passports in order to be considered. Applicants based in Australia on other visa categories, such as student visas or PALM visas, are also eligible to apply.

Eligibility criteria can be found on Australian DFAT’s website. For further information, those who are interested in the program are encouraged to reach out to the Australian High Commission Papua New Guinea or the PEV support service.