Why is Singapore not part of the Australia work holiday visa scheme when they are part of ours? Dampening~?

Question

I was searching through the list of countries eligible for a work holiday visa in Australia and was unhappily hit with the fact that Singapore is not part of the countries allowed. I did a check on the Singapore MOM side and found out that we allow the ozzies to work and holiday here but not us? That's kind of biased in my opinion, since other asian countries such as Taiwan and HKSAR get that privillege. Anyone knows why?

Answer 1

Cause lee kwan yew said so. and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Answer 2

I don't think anyone outside the two governments actually knows the answer to your question, but I do know that there are always extensive negotiations between countries regarding special visas and that agreements must be signed before the visas are made available. Perhaps Singapore has less stringent requirements than Australia related to the relative probability of visa overstayers and the actions to be taken when/if this occurs.