-- continued from above --

What you may be thinking of and confused about is super. They are eligible to get ALL their employer's super payments back on LEAVING the country. However, a lot of them don't this for various reasons (such as they don't know how to) and we now have millions and millions and millions of dollars in abandoned backpacker super accounts. It makes more sense to not have to pay the super into a fund account in the first place but rather give it directly to them!
Especially because if we give it directly to them then they can spend it here instead of potentially taking out of Australia overseas. It also saves a lot of paper work for the backpacker and the employer.

Slight correction to what I wrote above:
The non-resident tax rate is about 30%, I confused it with the no tax file number given rate of about 50%.

Thinkabit: JayB: You are very wrong and obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

You are probably right. I have been out of the Workforce for 16 years so I'm not up with the latest. I was only going on my experience of working outside the Country for half the year. Each time I had only worked not quite 6 months in Australia before leaving for overseas I always applied for & got my Paid Taxes refunded in full when I left the Country. Come to think of it, my brothers worked in the Cane Fields & Fishing Industry for about 5 months of the year & then did odd jobs here & there for the rest of the year & they always got a full refund.

The Rules may have changed since then. I don't know.

Hey, if some people on working visas are "currently taxed ... blah blah", why are fruit lickers not taxed now?