When new PALM scheme employees step off the plane in Australia with Regional Workforce Management, often for the first time in their lives, Mick Seduadua is one of the first faces they see. Before they've even left the airport, he's already reminding them how far they've come.

"I start with how blessed they are to be selected into the program," Mick said. "Remember, you are representing your family, your village and your country."

Mick can say it with such conviction because he once made the same journey himself. Back in Fiji, Mick had built a life most people spend a lifetime chasing. A 16 year finance career with a statutory organisation, a house, a car and his kids in school. By his mid thirties, he had ticked every box.

Then in 2009, he sold all of it and moved his wife and two kids to Australia. The decision was about his children, giving them better opportunities for study and work and he was willing to give up everything he'd built to do it.

"I had accomplished everything back home," Mick said. "Because I'd achieved all that, it was a real challenge to come over and start all over from zero. But I managed."

It wasn't easy. Mick arrived with almost nothing and no network to lean on. His first job was at an abattoir in Toowoomba, followed by two years of factory work to pay the bills, all while he kept applying for finance roles. That role brought him to RWM.

"I came with nothing. No one assisted me," Mick said. "Whatever I read or looked up, I helped myself."

The pull he couldn't ignore

Mick spent three years in RWM's finance team. As a Pacific Islander, he was the one colleagues turned to when a Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme employee was struggling and he kept finding himself stepping in to help our men and women through their challenges. It mattered to him more than anything on his desk.

"In finance, people were numbers. Here, I'm dealing with people," Mick said. "I felt an obligation to look after our Pacific Islanders. I knew I could help in this space."

So when the chance came to move into a cultural welfare role, he took it. Five years on, Mick supports thousands of PALM scheme employees through the exact journey he once made alone. Born and raised in Fiji, with 16 years working there and 18 here, he understands both worlds.

"I started from zero and I know how it was," Mick said. "Now I have the opportunity to help them. Because I'm already here, I know what to tell them so they can settle in quicker than I did."

More than a job, a father figure

Most of the employees Mick meets are leaving their village for the first time and many have lived with their parents their whole lives. A lot of them are the same age as Mick's own kids, so he becomes something more than a welfare officer.

"I can act like a father figure to them. Someone they can look up to," he said. "Some of the challenges they go through, they are not alone. I'm here for them."

No two days look the same. One morning everything runs smoothly, the next an employee is homesick, unwell or wrestling with something heavy from back home. The way Mick sees it, the work itself is handled by our client host sites and site managers. His job is to focus on the person.

"80 to 90 percent of what I deal with is the person and their welfare," he said. "My belief is there's a solution to everything."

The number that's always there

That belief comes with a phone that never switches off. Mick is one of the human faces of RWM's 24/7 pastoral care and our employees know they can reach him and our team at any time. They don't have to wait for Monday or for a site manager. Sometimes it's a real crisis after hours and sometimes it's a group of mates calling for his opinion on a debate. Either way, he picks up.

"It's a reassurance. That number is always there and they can call it anytime," Mick said.

For someone far from home, often for the first time in their life, that single fact changes everything. They are never truly on their own.

"What I want from everyone coming through the PALM scheme is to be successful," Mick said. "That's my primary goal."

Coming home

When he's not on the road supporting our teams, Mick is a musician who plays at his church and an active member of the Fijian community, including the annual Fiji Day event. But with all that travel, his reset outside of work comes back to family. 

"My reset is to come home," he said. "Family is the only thing I had when I came here. It's still everything."

His kids are now 29 and 25, both graduated and building careers here in Australia. Every goal Mick set before boarding that plane in 2009 now has a tick beside it.

"I had goals and I've ticked all my goals," he said.

For every PALM employee who walks nervously off that plane, Mick is living proof of where the journey can lead when you have goals and the dedication to work hard to make those happen.