Man hospitalised without Medicare after being set ablaze shows precarity of Pacific Island fruit pickers

Sione Lavalu lost his health insurance after Covid stranded him in Australia and now owes $79,000 after suffering major burns

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A Pacific farmworker who left his fruit picking job to work for a labour hire company ended up in hospital, without access to Medicare, after he was allegedly set alight by another worker.

Sione Lavalu spent 74 days in the Royal Brisbane hospital with stage three burns earlier this year. When he was first admitted, almost half his body was affected, and doctors told his family he had a 20% chance of surviving.

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