In NZ, backpackers get an extra three-month stay for three months of farm work. In Australia, they get an extra year’s stay for such an 88-day work stint. This incentive and farmers’ preference to backpackers over Pacific Islanders is undermining the seasonal worker program, a study by the World Bank and the Australian National University has found.

Australia's seasonal worker program (SWP) established in 2008 as a pilot, and then in 2012 as a permanent program, is aimed to help meet the labour needs in Australia’s horticultural sector and offer labour mobility opportunities to 2,500 Pacific islanders every year.

These workers who can stay here for between 3 and 6 months have to compete with  40,000 backpackers who complete farm stints to get an extra year’s work rights in Australia.

Report author Stephen Howes believes the ready supply of backpackers and financial and administrative burdens on growers using Pacific Islander labour, such as accommodation and private health insurance costs, contributes to the lower demand for seasonal workers, according to a report by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

He notes that "Backpackers turn up at your door, you don't have to do anything," he told AAP.

However, Prof Howes said most producers surveyed preferred using Pacific Islanders as they believed they were more reliable and harder working.

The study which surveyed 217 employers and 43 industry bodies recommends removing or reducing the second year visa extension for working holidays, or expanding the number of sectors in which backpackers can work. Other key recommendations include:

• Remove employer contributions to airfares for returning workers.
• Cover new workers' costs with a revolving fund
• Cut minimum 14 weeks work requirement for greater flexibility
• Allow islanders to work for multiple farms
• Remove labour market testing requirement for seasonal workers in postcodes already qualifying for backpacker farm workers

The report may become a key reference in the current trade pact negotiations between Australia and countries of the Pacific Islands, known as the PACER Plus negotiations, which is reviewing ways to improve trade with Australian now valued at AU$20.6 billion.