Development Policy Centre Podcast

In this public lecture delivered on 2 June 2016, Professor Richard Bedford takes a long-term perspective, looking both backwards and forwards, at Pacific migration and the approach of Australia and New Zealand to it. Between 2007 and 2010 the late Graeme Hugo and Dr Richard Bedford met several times with the Australia New Zealand Immigration Forum, an annual meeting of senior officials from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Department of Labour (NZ), to discuss population movement in the Pacific. An outcome of this interaction was a report entitled Population movement in the Pacific: a perspective on future prospects in which it was argued that greater convergence of policy relating to labour migration of Pacific peoples could make a significant contribution to development in the region. Four years later, after protracted negotiations over the Parliament and Civic Education Rebate plus trade and associated mobility agreements, a more coherent ANZ approach to Pacific labour migration is eme