The Lowy Institute has proposed opening Australia to workers from Pacific nations including Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands as a way of easing some of the shortages predicted as a result of changes to the backpacker tax and as a way of helping workers from those nations far more powerfully than could foreign aid.

The Institute's report, The development benefits of expanding Pacific access to Australia's labour market, says allowing a relatively open market could boost the incomes of those who migrated by around $33 billion, "around 40 times Australia's current aid budget to the region".

The report says the average income in the Pacific is round $3900, a mere fraction of Australia's. It says an "uncapped" program, which would allow unlimited entry from most Pacific nations and limit entry from Papua New Guinea to 5 per cent of its population, would boost the incomes of those who came by 87 per cent and add an extra 900,000 to Australia's population by 2040.

Over time, between one fifth and one third of the populations invited might move to Australia, about the same proportion as moved to the United States from North Pacific nations under similar arrangements.