Push for cheap labour trafficking in Oz shows where free trade deals are leading

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and says that grow­ing pres­sure to bring unskilled labour into Aus­tralia under a free trade agree­ment has con­firmed its worst fears.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says that pro­pos­als to allow com­pan­ies to import unskilled Chinese work­ers into Aus­trali­an ports and con­struc­tion sites gave a clear mes­sage to New Zea­l­and work­ers.

“This is the equi­val­ent of a huge neon sign flash­ing out the warn­ing that free trade deals will inev­it­ably lead to a col­lapse in wages, con­di­tions and work­ers rights. It is time we have a nation­al debate on free trade, and get the issue away from the con­trol of bur­eau­crats and private interest groups.”

The Aus­trali­an Fin­an­cial Review has repor­ted the Chinese Gov­ern­ment has put Can­berra on notice it would demand Aus­tralia go fur­ther on the issue of tem­por­ary entry of work­ers in the free trade agree­ment now under nego­ti­ation.

Ship­ping, con­struc­tion and min­ing are three key areas that Beijing has nom­in­ated as key to the labour nego­ti­ations that start at the end of this year.

The Chinese gov­ern­ment has used sep­ar­ate World Trade Organ­isa­tion nego­ti­ations to raise the issue of Aus­trali­an port dereg­u­la­tion, by want­ing to have ship crews load­ing and unload­ing ships, rather than loc­al work­ers.

The Aus­trali­an Fin­an­cial Review said China might be inter­ested in a point-to-point Chinese owned and staffed ship­ping line stretch­ing from inland Aus­tralia to inland China.

Mr Han­son says the recent failed attempt by Hong Kong based mul­tina­tion­al Hutchis­on to buy into the Port of Lyt­telton earli­er this year was an example of the “slip­pery slope of free trade.”

“Obvi­ously the mul­tina­tion­als would much rather have low-cost labour employed under Chinese con­di­tions work­ing in New Zea­l­and, just as they would in Aus­tralia. China is a police state where work­ers have no inde­pend­ent uni­ons or right to organ­ize, and those con­di­tions are going to be com­ing down the line to us unless we start to ques­tion the free trade syn­drome.”

Mr Han­son says New Zea­l­and has been hyp­not­ized with pro­pa­ganda about the bene­fits of mar­ket access for New Zea­l­and products to over­seas mar­kets.

“How­ever no one seems to grasp that China will want some­thing out of the deal, and they have now put it on the table for Aus­tralia. Why should the situ­ation be any dif­fer­ent in New Zea­l­and?”

He says it is very import­ant the issue does not get turned into a debate on race and immig­ra­tion, but instead focussed on the real issue of free trade being used to play work­ers off against each oth­er in a glob­al race to the bot­tom.

“It is the old tac­tic of divide and rule, turn­ing work­ers against work­ers, on a grand scale. The issue is about wages, con­di­tions and the right of all work­ers to secure jobs and human rights. There’s no free in free trade for the work­ers.”

Mr Han­son says that if people want an example of the real­ity of work con­di­tions under free trade, they should look at over­seas work­ers in the New Zea­l­and fish­ing industry.

“They are under­paid, over-worked, and as numer­ous reports have indic­ated suf­fer from poor safety con­di­tions and are often abused and even assaul­ted. What hap­pens when that situ­ation moves ashore?”

He says the Mari­time Uni­on is plan­ning for strong and co-ordin­ated nation­al action if there is any attempt to under­mine con­di­tions through free trade agree­ments, and has offered its sup­port to Aus­trali­an uni­ons.

ENDS