10 June 2008
Press Conference
Australian High Commission, Apia, Samoa
Subjects: Seasonal Labour Mobility Scheme, Pacific Partnerships for Development
SBCTV1: (inaudible – question about an Australian seasonal labour mobility program and recent media reporting)
Duncan Kerr: (inaudible) …you hear a lot of stories. I’m a great supporter of it personally, but our Cabinet has not yet made a decision. So until our Cabinet makes a decision, I can’t say what will happen.
SBCTV1: And it’s most likely one of the issues on the agenda during the Forum.
Kerr: Yes. Everyone’s asked us. Our Prime Minister says he wants to go to Niue able to respond to requests made by Pacific Island Countries. If it happens, it’ll be on a trial basis and probably with a limited number of countries to start with, but the intention being, that if it’s successful, then it will expand across the whole of the Pacific. It will be a Pacific-centred scheme.
SBCTV1: So it will be pretty much identical to New Zealand’s RSE?
Kerr: Not necessarily. Certainly we will be trying to build on that and there will be some differences. We’ve been able to look at the New Zealand scheme and hopefully improve that. That’s the advantage of the New Zealanders having done it first. You can see how its operated. But I can’t give you the detail of what a scheme will be because we are yet to make a decision, and I can’t even flag the countries that would be first in line to participate, because there are some start-up arrangements that need to be put in place. We’d like to make sure – it would be hard to roll it out across the whole of the Pacific – that the design works well. Inevitably, there will be some countries that will be disappointed because they are not chosen in the first roll-out. We have to manage expectations. Everyone will expect to be in the first group. Some won’t be. That is, if the scheme goes ahead.
SBCTV1: Mr Kerr, on the record, could you comment on reports that the Australian Government is entertaining a guest worker program for Pacific Island residents to have the opportunity to work in Australia recognised in other parts?
Kerr: There is no secret the Australian Government is looking at the possibility of such a scheme. We said we are. And we have had very encouraging reports from New Zealand where there is a scheme already in existence. I think we have learned a lot from the operation of that scheme, but Cabinet has not yet considered this issue. A final decision to proceed or not to proceed has not been made. Decisions about the design elements and about which countries would be first-up have not yet been decided by our Cabinet. I’m a very strong supporter of the scheme myself. I’ve been around the Pacific, so I know how important it is for Pacific Island Countries. But I have to be cautious because our Cabinet has not yet made any decisions. I think it would be very irresponsible of me to anticipate a decision that our Government has not yet formerly made.
SBCTV1: Is your Prime Minister for such a scheme when it goes before Cabinet for approval or rejection?
Kerr: (inaudible) …what we have said is that will be looking to the experience of New Zealand. All the reports coming back suggest the New Zealand scheme has been successful both from New Zealand’s point of view (especially the employers) and of course from the Pacific Islands, where people are able to send remittances and to come home with money to start either a small business or pay education fees or whatever they need to do. So I think the framework is very positive but until Cabinet decides it – it could be the decision will be that the scheme does not proceed – we won’t know which of the Pacific countries will be in the first group of countries to participate. With any scheme of this kind we need to make sure that the people who participate are fully advised of what will be expected of them in Australia if the scheme goes ahead. We need to make sure that arrangements are robust so that nobody is taken advantage of. We need to make sure that employers participating understand their responsibility about wages and that make proper arrangements for accommodation and the like. So if there is a trial, it will start with a limited number of countries participating with a view that if it is successful and the demand is there, it can grow. But until a decision is made by Cabinet, I can’t really take it any further.
SBCTV1: When does the Australian Cabinet hope to deliberate to make such a decision on the guest worker scheme?
Kerr: The deadline we have set ourselves is Niue, which is in August. The Prime Minister will be going to the Leaders Forum in Niue and he would want to be able to tell the Prime Ministers of all the countries: whether Australia is going to proceed; whether the scheme will operate as a trial; and if so, what countries would be able to participate first-up; what the architecture of the arrangements will be; what countries are to do to enable themselves to take part in the trial; and how it’s going to work. We would like to be able to do that by Niue. So decisions will have to be made relatively shortly by Cabinet to enable all that to proceed to that deadline. There are a number of Cabinet meetings scheduled for the upcoming weeks. It could be at anyone of those Cabinet meetings.
SBCTV1: Which Pacific Islands have approached or indicated to the Australian Government they would support such a guest worker initiative?
Kerr: Almost every country that I’ve visited has indicated an interest. Samoa has indicated an interest, Tonga, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands – right across the board. Wherever I’ve been, it’s been one of the issues raised by Prime Ministers. And you can understand that, because the New Zealand scheme has enabled people to travel from the Pacific Islands to work in New Zealand to make some money, and then to return home. So the advantage to the Pacific Islands is: firstly, they are not losing their young people (it is mainly young people who are participating); secondly, it means that the remittances that are sent home for families which can be used as a building block for small businesses. We would hope that as we move forward to consider whether Australia can consider such a scheme, that we will learn from the New Zealand experience and hopefully improve it.
SBCTV1: Is there really a demand for Pacific Island guest workers in Australia? Is there a shortage of workers?
Kerr: It will be a demand-driven process. If there is no demand, if employers are unable to prove there is no Australia labour ready, willing and able to undertake the work, then it will simply not be available. We are not about creating artificial jobs. It will only be demand-driven, but as we are given to understand from our farmer organisations, they say there is a very significant demand. Obviously, if the trial proceeds, we will test that, but it will only work if employers come forward and say they are willing to pay this quite substantial price. If it’s the same sort of model as New Zealand, then they will pay part of the travel costs for people travelling to Australia; they will have to provide accommodation; they have to pay full Australia wages rates. So it is not a cheap labour scheme. It will only operate if there is demand.
SBCTV1: On the separate issue, this being your second visit to Samoa, any general comments on what you have witnessed so far?
Kerr: Samoa, I think is one of the countries of the Pacific which can hold its head up. It’s Government and people have made some pretty tough decisions that are starting to pay off. For example, the decision to sell-off its national carrier might have been very controversial, but it was a brave decision. Airfares have come down as Polynesian Blue has come into the Pacific. I think this has improved tourism opportunities in the Pacific. I think it was a courageous decision to open up the local telecommunications sector to competition. These are a couple of areas where the people and Government of Samoa can be proud.
We know there are good relations between Australia and Samoa. The AusAID people based in Apia are sitting down now with a planning sessions about how to work through a partnership agreement with the Government of Samoa and the Government of Australia, so we can build on Kevin Rudd’s announcement, made in Port Moresby, that Australia will negotiate Pacific Partnerships with each of the Pacific countries. The two countries we have started negotiations with are Papua New Guinea and Samoa. We want to make it plain that Papua New Guinea is the biggest country in the Pacific, with six million people, and Samoa, while not the biggest, is one of the more successful. That is why we would like you at the head of the queue. There should be no punishment for being successful. So I hope that those good relationships continue. I’m confident they will be built on into the future and I hope to visit many more times. It’s part of my role as the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs to conduct regular meetings so that the people-to-people links, that are so important, continue.
SBCTV1: Thank you sir.
SBCTV1: I think it was the Herald Sun that came out with that report that named five Pacific countries to be included in (inaudible).
Kerr: Unless they know something I don’t. But our Cabinet hasn’t met. It has not made those decisions and I don’t believe that all that detail can be so confidently said. If it proceeds, almost certainly some of that report will be true – its obviously come from some of the people involved in the discussions. But I don’t think we can be confident in it. Any journalist sniffing round will find out some of the elements, but I’d be very cautious about saying these will be the countries that participate, or this will be the design of the scheme, because those things have not been finally agreed. They may turn out to be premature.
SBCTV1: I think judgment day will be in Niue. That will be in August I think.
Kerr: In August, that’s right. It may be announced before Niue, but that’s the deadline. I suspect it will be announced in Niue, because I suspect our Prime Minister would want to be able to announce it at that Forum, if it’s a positive answer. It would be a matter for the Prime Minister.
Samoa Observer: When is the deadline?
Kerr: In Niue. Do you have any other questions?
Samoa Observer: Any comments on your meeting with SUNGO?
Kerr: I was very pleased about it. It’s important not to say everything is wonderful. Equally, it’s very important to not fall into the trap of not recognising all the positive initiatives Samoa has been involved in. For example, after that meeting I went to one of their affiliates – the Samoa Victims’ Support Group – and they have had help through AusAID and volunteers. They seem to be doing a terrific job. We have a law and justice sector support program. We have improved police accommodation. But the sector is wider that just that. It can reach into organisations like victims’ support groups, improving legislative drafting, a whole range of things. It is important that we realise that what we are trying to do is to improve lives. We are involved in these Pacific Partnerships to improve the lives of people of the Pacific. It’s not to grab headlines. It would be easy to build monuments with flashing lights to say Australian aid did this, but we want to make sure the key institutions of government work effectively. We support that. We want to ensure the education system reaches out and is effective. So too with the health, as well as the law and justice systems, that infrastructure that is necessary can be provided. And we can’t do all this by ourselves.
We need to fit in with the priorities chosen by the Samoan people themselves through their elected Government. We also hope to gain support of other donors to work in support of those priorities. The Samoa Government has taken the initiative by developing its strategic planning objectives and that gives us a good framework to sit down and negotiate issues to suggest some things that might also be added. We won’t always agree 100 per cent, but we can find the great majority will be in common. Once we agree on those things we can go out to the rest of the donor community. We already work closely with NZAID – our closest partner in development assistance and a very important contributor to assistance in Samoa. But we need to build links to other donor organisations to fill gaps because this isn’t a short-term aim. It’s about building long-term strengths for the objectives we are setting out to achieve. We need the help of everybody.
SBCTV1: Mr Kerr, just for background. The aid to the Ministry of Police, that will be one of the biggest – a five year program to the tune of over AUD100 million.
Kerr: I don’t think it’s quite that much money. But it includes the police station, which was a big project. And we have ongoing assistance to strengthening policing, and just the other day, we opened the coordination unit for transnational crime centres that extend around the Pacific. Samoa’s got a big stake in that network now. And we have a big stake in the effective operation of Samoa’s police.
SBCTV1: Thank you for your time.
Media inquiries: Duncan Kerr's office - 02 6277 4991