Australia, Jan. 20 -- By Stephen Howes and Beth Orton

Last year, 3,737 Tongans came to Australia to work in the Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP).

Net earnings from the SWP are what workers take home to Tonga with them. They send some of their net earnings home as remittances, and take the rest either in cash, or as purchased goods.

A World Bank study of seasonal workers in 2015 estimated that Tongan seasonal workers made on average net earnings of A$9,759 each.

This estimate is calculated based on the workers' reported total earnings in Australia minus their expenses in Australia minus estimates of the earnings and income in Tonga that they had to forgo to be in Australia. We don't have a more recent estimate than 2015. If anything, on...