Why a new slave labour commissioner won’t change anything - Bruce Cotterill

Labour list MP Camilla Belich proposes a commissioner to monitor slave labour in NZ. Photo / Mark Mitchell

KEY FACTS

• Labour MP Camilla Belich has proposed a bill for a commissioner to monitor slave labour use.
• The bill targets businesses with over $50 million revenue.
• Critics argue New Zealand should focus on domestic issues like child safety and economic challenges.

Labour MP Camilla Belich has lodged a member’s bill asking for another commissioner, this time to monitor our use of slave labour. Her proposal implies that there are too many cases of slave labour here, but also notes that our imports have a high content of slave labour. She seems to think that we will be able to convince our overseas suppliers to modify their employment practices.

So here we go again. Another case of a New Zealand politician who thinks the world cares about what we think. Imagine our new “Slave Commissioner” rocking up to Apple, Adidas or Samsung and threatening to stop buying their phones or running shoes because of their employment practices. How do we think that will go?

I’m not attempting to belittle the importance nor the tragedy attached to people who are forced into work on unreasonable terms. It happens all over the world. There are 9-year-old kids working brutally long hours in horrible conditions in too many countries to mention here. We purchase imported product from some of those countries. But do we really think that we can turn up on their doorstep and ask them to change their ways?

Of course, this comes hard on the heels of a select subset of our politicians jumping up and down about Israel’s mistreatment of people in Gaza and Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. I am yet to see either Israel’s or Russia’s reaction to our protests. Probably because they didn’t take notice.

Perhaps we could introduce a tariff on products imported from those economies who don’t abide by our anti-slavery policies? Of course, no one would take notice of that either. The reason the US can introduce tariffs is because the world cares about what they think. They’re the world’s biggest customer and they have the biggest defence force. But us? Get real.

In a radio interview on Newstalk ZB this week, Belich suggested that if appointed, the new commissioner will not focus his or her efforts on small business. Only those with revenues of over $50 million per annum will be targeted.

Excuse me? Firstly, my hazy recollection of New Zealand’s issues with slavery and labour exploitation suggests that the problems have been detected in small businesses. One case that I recall involved workers doing domestic and orcharding work. Another higher-profile case involved an Auckland restaurant and migrant workers from India. Yet another saw an investigation into a bowling alley. Let’s be clear, these are small businesses with revenues substantially less than $50 million.

Secondly, there are plenty of privately owned businesses with perfectly good recruitment and employment records, with no historical examples or even suspicions of anything resembling slavery or labour exploitation, and with turnovers of $50 million or more. And here is a suggestion that, not content with the time wasted in those businesses responding to anti-money laundering requirements, health and safety stupidity, environmental nonsense and climate reporting, we are now going to ask them to bow to the needs of a slavery commissioner!

During the radio interview, Belich admitted that she had no idea of how big a problem slavery is in New Zealand. Elsewhere, I noticed that an accompanying statement said the proposed policy was a response to a World Vision initiative urging us to do something.

And so the truth comes out. The proposal to appoint an anti-slavery commissioner is yet another sop to an overseas organisation that wants to tell us how to live our lives.

Labour's anti-slavery bill misses the mark. writes Bruce Cotterill. Photo / 123rf

Deep down, New Zealanders are good people. We don’t like the thought of labour exploitation any more than other decent human beings. But we can stand on our principles all day long. It doesn’t mean those in lofty positions of power elsewhere will take any notice.

But let’s not underestimate the cost of taking our arguments to the world.

The last time we appointed a commissioner, it was to oversee the cost of groceries. From the moment he was appointed, this writer has been highly sceptical of any benefit at all being delivered to the average New Zealand household as a result. But there he is, sitting in an office within MBIE with a 30-strong staff costing us millions.

And this one would be no different.

Then there is the fact that we have a very good police force. Is it not their job to sniff out criminal behaviour, including anything to do with labour exploitation or slavery? New Zealand currently criminalises slavery and trafficking under existing legislation. That legislation should be enough for the police to act where necessary. If it’s not, let’s upgrade the legislation instead of creating another government office.

There is something sadly lacking in New Zealand political circles at present. It’s called common sense. We seem to be damn keen to jump on board any bandwagon, cause, or worse, gravy train, that pops up without any logical thought about our priorities, potential outcomes, or financial cost.

I’d like to suggest that our politicians would be better to focus on the things that can make a difference to our troubled little economy.

New Zealand has a whole lot of challenges that I’d like to see our elected representatives focusing on. At the top of that list is this. Stop wasting money.

At all levels of government, including local government, we continue to press the case to spend more money. The recent rates increases tell us that Auckland’s mayor is one of the few who focuses heavily on costs. And yet it should be the job of every politician to work out what our priorities are, and then tell us how they can do more with less.

But no, projects run over time and budgets are blown. Annual forecasts allow for increasingly eyewatering sums of money for what should be relatively simple and straightforward services.

When you’re broke, you have to focus on the things that really matter. That’s where the attention goes. And that’s where the funding goes. In government terms, we’re not really broke, but we’re not exactly flush either. The Greens will tell us that we can borrow more money and still have less debt than other nations. But they’re overlooking the fact that our low productivity environment makes borrowing a lot easier than paying it back. And our interest bill is already our fourth biggest cost. We’d be foolish to allow it to go any higher unless that debt supported increased income, greater productivity or both.

It’s no secret that our problems are plenty. The usual suspects, Health and Education, seem well-funded but poorly resourced. What does that mean? It means there’s plenty of money allocated, but not enough of it lands at the coalface.

Elsewhere, our infrastructure deficit is massive and we need different thinking to work out what to do about the inadequacies of our power, water and transport infrastructure in particular.

Then there are our people who can’t look after themselves and those who can’t cope in today’s society. Not looking after those people properly leads to downstream effects, including increasing burdens from health and crime.

Right now, New Zealand is not doing well enough on any of these measures.

If we want to aspire to become a country that’s respected and listened to internationally, we would do well to remember the following. The country that can do most to help those less advantaged, including victims of war, famine and yes, even slavery, are those countries with strong economies. Before we start telling the rest of the world how to behave, we need to build an economy that can afford to offer help, rather than just cheaply throwing words around telling others how to live their lives.

As it turns out, we do have room for a new commissioner. I’d like to think we could appoint a commissioner who would make a real and substantive difference to New Zealand. Firstly a difference to the outcomes for our people but also a difference to our international standing. Fixing this one would give us greater license to tell others how to behave. Currently, that license is weakened because of our own inadequacy.

You could call that person the Commissioner for our Greatest Embarrassment. But in reality, they would be a Commissioner for Child Safety. In other words, something or someone that provides a massive focus on preventing us from killing our kids.

Can you believe that we have a Ministry for Children, a Social Wellbeing Agency, and ministerial portfolios for Child Poverty, and for the Prevention of Family Violence? I wonder what all that costs. And yet here we are, ranking 35th in the OECD for the wellbeing of our children.

In case we’ve forgotten, on average, one child dies every five weeks in New Zealand at the hands of someone responsible for their care. Of the 127 children murdered between 2007 and 2020, three-quarters were under the age of 5.

Let that sink in for a moment. Then tell me that the slave trade in China, Nigeria or India is more important.

I’d like to think we have bigger priorities than the opposition’s latest bill.

Our parents used to say, worry about your own backyard first. That sounds like great advice.