The announcement of an Australian seasonal worker program has been warmly welcomed by employer groups and Pacific governments - but the devil's in the detail says Nic Maclellan (pictured).
The announcement of a pilot study for a seasonal workers program in Australia - with 2500 workers coming to Australia over the next three years to work in horticulture - follows years of lobbying by Pacific governments.
The Australian government led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that the pilot will be evaluated after 18 months, to determine whether the scheme should be continued and expanded beyond the four countries chosen for the initial study: Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. The first three countries - one each from Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia - are already recruiting workers for New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, while Papua New Guinea has historic links to Australia that are hard to ignore.
Other countries are already seeking to be involved: former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has been actively lobbying for Timorese workers to be included in the scheme, while the Solomon Islands was disappointed that it was not included in the pilot (though Honiara has won the consolation prize of being formally added to New Zealand's RSE scheme).
The seasonal workers program hit the headlines in Australia after Brendan Nelson - leader of the opposition Coalition parties - came out in opposition to the scheme. In spite of the Coalition's criticism that little was known about the government's proposal, it has been on the table for some time. The Forum has discussed the issue for years, the benefits of temporary labour mobility were studied in a 2006 World Bank report, and the report of a 2006 inquiry by the Australian Senate openly noted that "domestic political considerations" precluded a scheme being introduced in the lead up to the 2007 Australian elections.
Legitimate concerns over the costs of temporary worker programs - family separation, potential breaches of labour rights and a lack of housing and welfare support for overseas workers - have been overshadowed by the Coalition's disarray over the proposal. Ironically, the sharpest criticism of the Opposition parties' last minute politicking has come from employer groups, with Denita Wawn of the National Farmer's Federation stating: "We're exceptionally disappointed with the Coalition. They are significantly out of touch with their position on the guest worker scheme."
Nelson's statements also drew howls of protest from National Party members in rural fruit-growing regions where farmers are eager to recruit overseas workers. The confusion was not helped when former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer admitted that the Howard Cabinet had rejected his proposal for a similar scheme 18 months ago, partly because of concerns about "the image of bringing in labour which is, essentially, of course to be frank about it, non-white labour, to do jobs that people in Australia simply didn't want to do." As Brendan Nelson called for criminal and health checks on Papua New Guineans coming to pick fruit in Australia, PNG's agriculture minister John Hickey in turn urged the Rudd Government to protect workers from exploitation by employers: "First we would like to see our workers belong to a trade union in Australia, because they would receive some protection from exploitation if they became trade unionists."
Seasonal worker schemes are attractive for horticulture farmers as they can guarantee a regular source of labour, in an industry reliant on backpackers and people working cash-in-hand in breach of their tourist or student visas. Pacific workers are attracted by Australian wage rates and there is much demand for employment opportunities from villagers who are skilled at farming or fishing, but lack the trade and professional qualifications needed for urban employment or the chance to migrate to Australia and New Zealand.
Pacific governments are eager to extend the Australian program to soak up unemployment and increase flows of remittances into rural communities, to be used for improved housing, payment of school fees or community programs. They also recognise that remittances are an increasing element of most Pacific economies - in its 2008 Pacific Economic Survey, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) estimates that on current trends, remittances to the Pacific will overtake aid by 2009.
But there are significant social costs associated with temporary labour schemes, as detailed in our report "Workers for all seasons?" published by the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at Swinburne University in Melbourne. Seasonal workers are separated from family for months at a time, which can impact on children's welfare and education and put an extra burden on the elderly left in the village. The experience of the New Zealand RSE scheme shows that a lack of engagement with unions, the community sector and Pacific diaspora communities has led to significant problems. The first year of RSE has highlighted the need for increased effort on labour rights, welfare services and "pastoral care" for seasonal workers, and also the shortage of secure and affordable housing in rural and regional areas (The NZ Department of Labour is currently investigating reports that a group of over 20 RSE workers from Kiribati were accommodated in one house).
The protection of workers' entitlements and health and safety is a major concern in precarious industries like horticulture, agriculture and construction, which often operate in areas with low union coverage, limited government regulation and a highly casualised, mobile workforce.
For a long time, employer groups like the National Farmers Federation (NFF) in Australia have argued for a self-regulation model, relying on industry pressure to ensure that overseas workers are not ripped off.
With the announcement of the pilot, there are already farmers arguing that they should run the show. One NSW apple grower has already called on the Government to use Australian aid funds to help cover costs over and above the usual salaries, highlighting the attitude of some employers that they want to shift the costs of the scheme onto the must vulnerable communities in our region.
Ian Hay, president of the Cherry Growers Association of Australia, said this week he did not want unions to be overly involved in monitoring the scheme: "Farmers generally treat their workers well and shouldn't be expected to give the Pacific Islanders any special treatment at the whim of the unions." But the experience of seasonal workers schemes in New Zealand and Canada shows there is a need for regulation and monitoring of all aspects of the program. Trade unions and government agencies must be engaged in supporting the labour rights of workers, who are operating in a totally alien legal and political framework. No member of the Pacific Islands Forum has signed or ratified key ILO conventions on the rights of migrant workers, and Pacific labour legislation is often outdated and inadequate to cope with an increasingly globalised work force (like the thousands of Fijians working in Iraq or Tuvaluan and i-Kiribati seafarers who already staff the global shipping trade).
Under the Howard government, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and key unions opposed seasonal work schemes, fearful that former government's industrial relations laws would lead to a two-tier labour system, with different wages and conditions for Australian and overseas workers. This fear was amplified by the exploitation of overseas workers under s457 visas for temporary skilled labour. Some major unions continue to oppose the seasonal workers scheme, although the Australian Workers Union (AWU) - which covers many rural workers - has given conditional support as long as it's well regulated.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has announced that the management of the pilot program will come under the portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard as Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Placing the scheme under her department rather than the Immigration Department is important in terms of regulating wages, conditions and occupational health and safety (there is a need for the Department to appoint extra inspectors to monitor implementation of the program, as New Zealand's Department of Labour has done for the RSE scheme). The results of Commissioner Barbara Deegan's current inquiry into the s457 skilled worker visa program will also provide valuable information on the regulation of unskilled labour mobility from the Pacific.
The management of the pilot by a domestic ministry, however, raises questions about the role of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and the need to amplify the development outcomes of an increased remittance flow to the Pacific.
There is great potential to link seasonal work programs to broader development assistance, to maximise the benefits of remittances into Pacific villages and rural communities. The pilot creates an opportunity for unions, NGOs and AusAID to integrate vocational training into the recruitment and after-care programs for seasonal workers, and to expand efforts to reduce the cost of transmitting remittances (which is higher in the Pacific than anywhere else in the world).
The early evidence from New Zealand also suggests potential for community links between horticulture regions and districts where workers are recruited. One significant outcome of the RSE program is that some communities in Tonga and Vanuatu have co-ordinated to send a number of workers at a time, encouraging them to commit a portion of their wages to community trust funds or projects like micro-credit schemes for women.
The initial announcement of the Australian scheme by Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has given little information about issues like recruitment and pre-departure briefing. Given evidence of alcohol abuse by Pacific workers in New Zealand, there is a need for greater pre-departure information on issues like substance abuse, HIV-AIDS and gambling, along with information on financial budgeting and the costs of transmitting remittances.
The debate about increased opportunities for temporary workers must be seen in a broader context of regional labour mobility, trade negotiations and economic integration.
In the 1880s, there was debate about whether New Zealand and New Guinea should be incorporated into the Australian Federation - a proposal scuttled by advocates of the White Australia Policy. Today, the announcement of the pilot seasonal worker program comes at a time when Australia and New Zealand are debating greater regional economic integration. In 1983, Australia and New Zealand joined together in Closer Economic Relations (CER), with two-way trade now worth $21.5 billion. Meeting Prime Minister Helen Clark in New Zealand en route to the Niue Forum, Kevin Rudd stated: "I want to see us working more closely together bilaterally, driving towards the single economic market."
The two major Pacific powers are now debating how to extend CER to the wider Pacific region. The Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER), signed by most Forum member countries in 2001, is now being extended into a regional free trade agreement, dubbed PACER-Plus. Australia and New Zealand have been pushing for a start to negotiations for the PACER-Plus agreement, in spite of resistance by some Pacific governments and community groups, who are wary of the social and economic impacts of full regional integration.
Pacific non-government organisations argue that the seasonal worker program in Australia should be developed as an element of migration and development assistance policy, rather than used as a trading chip in the proposed negotiations for a regional free trade agreement. A statement to Forum leaders by key regional NGOs - including the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government Organisations (PIANGO), the South Pacific and Oceanic Council of Trade Unions (SPOCTU) and the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) - states that seasonal works schemes: "should not be used as bargaining chips in negotiations to create pressure for trade liberalisation in Pacific Island countries. Labour mobility schemes, such as NZ's pilot Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme (or any similar scheme in Australia), must be completely separated from PACER-Plus negotiations."
With Australia scheduled to host the Forum leaders meeting in 2009, the Rudd government has a significant opportunity for agenda setting over trade, aid and labour mobility. Australia will chair the Forum in 2009-10 as key decisions are taken over a timetable for a new regional agreement on trade liberalisation.
Nic Maclellan is a journalist and researcher working in the Pacific. He is author of "Workers for all seasons?" a study of the New Zealand seasonal labour program. An earlier version of this article was published on Australian Policy Online (www.apo.org.au).