Seasonal crop industry workers boost Pacific economies

Seasonal workers at the Satara kiwifruit packhouse in Te Puke.
On right: Group leader Sepuloni Saipaia and Satara pastoral care
manager Tim Crossman.

By Lucy Mullinger: Pacific Media Centre

An export harvesting and packaging industry employing seasonal Pacific Islanders has emerged as a critical money-spinner for small island economies, with the scheme earning more than $10 million a year for Tonga alone.

A government analyst, Anne Masoe, who has been involved with the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme since 2006, says it is important for Pacific remittances.

Masoe, a Department of Labour analyst, says the work policy began on April 1, 2007, and was launched under the labour market strategy.

The policy helps Pacific Islanders find work planting, maintaining, harvesting and packing crops in the horticulture and viticulture industries.

RSE enables New Zealand employers to recruit labourers aged 18 to 52 from Pacific Islands Forum member nations, including the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

According to the Mr Apple website, the company which is the largest RSE’s schemes largest employer says it is the “largest grower, packer and exporter of apples”.

It focuses on producing “quality export apples for valuable customers in the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, USA and the Middle East”.

At a meeting held in mid-May, Mr Apple’s labour manager, Alistair Jamieson, briefed visiting Prime Minister Dr Feleti Sevele in Hastings on the Tongan contingent’s contribution to the company’s business.

Jamieson says the Dr Sevele was very happy with the policy and caught up with his workers.

Jamieson also met up with the Samoan Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi , recently who was equally pleased with the initiative.

“Both the Tongan and Samoan governments are very keen to have the programme's remittance back to the islands” says Jamieson.

Great benefit
Mr Apple's labour coordinator, Karen Morrish, said the meeting went exceptionally well and all members of the Mr Apple team (senior management, orchard staff and RSE workers) found the meeting to be of great benefit to both the RSE and the company.

Mr Apple employs the Tongan RSE workers through TongaWorks which supports workers and their employers.

According to TongaWorks brand manager Sefita Hao'uli, the “RSE is a necessity for Mr Apple's business to be successful because of higher productivity and a more reliable work force”.

Hao'uli says: “RSE is extremely important to Tonga and Pacific countries who have been asking for access to the NZ Labour market”.

It is worth over 10 million dollars to Tonga each year and involves quite a large number of Tonga's small population.

Before employing RSE staff, “the harvest was always difficult and there were no guarantees that they would be able to get the fruit picked on time,” says Hao'uli.

According to Hao'uli, for the year ending April 09 New Zealand employed just over 5000 RSE workers. More than 2400 were from Vanuatu, Tonga 1200, Samoa 1100 and the remainder from Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

Morrish says “we started with 26 workers and have grown with the scheme to having employed 833 this season.” With 1700 people on the seasonal work force this year that means half of the employees were from the RSE.


Peak needs
Morrish says “our RSE workers provide the seasonal peak requirements at our times of thinning and picking”.

According to Masoe, residents from Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu can work up to six months, whereas Kiribati and Tuvalu citizens can work up to nine months in New Zealand.

Jamieson says he likes to employ these workers because the company values the Pacific Islanders’ work ethic.

“They have great integrity” and “we obviously try to give them as much work as possible”. “The fact that they are here, keen to work and reliable is an amazing benefit to us”.

Mr Apple has already been recruiting RSE staff for two years. RSE status is initially granted for two years with additional years if the employer keeps to the regulations imposed by the Department of Labour.

Mr Apple is now on to its third year due to the fact that it has to keep up with the RSE rules and regulations which include ensuring they pay for half of the workers travel costs to and from New Zealand, a guarantee of pay for at least 240 hours of work and an average of 30 hours a week.

RSE accredited companies are also expected to provide suitable accommodation, translation, transportation, and the chance for RSE staff to maintain their religious and recreational activities. When it comes to pay and employment law, the same rules for New Zealand workers apply.

According to Hao'uli, most RSE labourers are on the minimum pay (an hour) when they first begin working, however the minimum pay rates don't always apply on contract.

“It's not about how long one works, it’s how hard,” he says.

Costs rise
One problem, however, is that local employers in Tonga have found the cost of labour has gone up because "quality" labourers now have other better paying options”, says Hao’uli.

There is also the problem of workers being re-located outside their own countries and away from their families.

“The social impact both at home and abroad are often overlooked,” says Hao'uli.

However, the Department of Labour and RSE organisers are aware of the problems, DOL’s Masoe says there are always improvements to any policy - “we are two years down the road and still fine tuning the scheme”.

The Department of Labour has been provided with some funding through the Government Agency Fund “to provide technical assistance for Pacific states to improve RSE for the next two years”, says Masoe.

“We're at the infancy and both host and source country governments are keen to address these as they arise,” says Hao'uli.

Pre-departure training, orientation and worker support while on the job go to some extent to monitor and address these issues as it is in everyone's interest to work together.

Countries such as Tonga have a whole division devoted to RSE and a full time team of trainers to do all of the necessary training before departure. It can take up to three days for some of the new recruits.

Former RSE workers and group leaders are also brought in to help with training to ensure new workers are ready before they arrive in the country.

Lucy Mullinger is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University. Pictured above: Sefita Hao'uli (Photo: Del Abcede).

Mr Apple
Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme

Pacific reporter fights off smear campaign

By Lucy Mullinger: Pacific Media Centre

World Press Freedom day was celebrated around the globe this weekend while one of New Zealand's top reporters has been fending off a nasty smear campaign over a controversial report about gangs and guns in Samoa.

The Samoan government has threatened legal action against Television New Zealand and Pacific affairs reporter Barbara Dreaver because of her report on April 6 which highlighted the issue of guns being smuggled into the Pacific country.

Gangs are accused of being involved and also as drug dealers.

Samoan authorities claim there is no “gang culture” in the country. Dreaver is accused of bribing young Samoan men with alcohol to get a fabricated story about the gangs.

Dreaver denies the claims. She says no legal action or complaint has been filed through the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) – and she vows to fight it if it does.

Dreaver stands by her story, saying: “There are a lot of people working on TVNZ stories and I would never be allowed to film something that was untrue”.

Her network recently publicly issued a sworn affidavit by her rejecting the allegations, and she adds: “I have proof and their argument would never stand up in court.”

The regional media freedom conference is being held in Samoa this week and the director of the Pacific Media Centre, Associate Professor David Robie, will be attending and expects the controversy to be debated.

Hot topic
“The issue will be a hot topic. I hope that it will be conducted fairly and professionally,” he says.

A Samoa Observer article written by an anonymous reporter on April 26 said: “Whether Dreaver and TVNZ agree, the truth is that as anyone who has lived in this country for many years will vouch, there is no such thing as a gang culture in Samoa”.

The Sunday Samoan refers to Dreaver’s story as “a sickening documentary”.

The reporter goes on to refer to a scene with young men “brandishing guns” as a “despicable scene” where Dreaver is alleged to have misled them to believe they were in a Hollywood film.

Dreaver denies this and says: “The boys had a lot of marijuana on them and Samoa has strict rules about carrying joints, of course they are going to deny being involved.”

The reporter continues: “The images are so disgusting you feel like running outside and bury[ing] your head in the mud.”

This time the reporter does not completely rule out the fact there are problems in Samoa: “We admit there are drugs-and-guns-related problems here but then every country has them”.

Dr Robie describes an unsigned editorial in the Sunday Samoan on April 20 that personally "threatens" Dreaver as one of the worst personal attacks on a journalist he has seen in some time.

He defends Dreaver, saying: “She is one of the leading roving Pacific correspondents in the region” He believes she is unmatched in New Zealand television and has been “a role model to many journalists”.

Strong support
An ex-colleague and friend of Dreaver, Sandra Kailahi, is a producer and presenter on the new digital channel TVNZ7 who agrees with Dr Robie.

She has known Dreaver for many years after attending the same journalism school in 1990 and says: “I don’t believe Barbara would deliberately mislead anyone.”

Editor of Spasifik magazine Peter Rees used to work for the Samoa Observer. He notes Dreaver has written columns for Spasifik in the past and says: “Her determination to expose NZ audiences to Pacific issues through her role on One News is to be commended”.

He says there is gang activity in Samoa “but not at the levels that people are led to believe”.

In Dreaver’s story, he believes that gangs are not the same in Samoa as they are in New Zealand.

“It is more to do with unemployed and bored youth in the urbanised areas of the capital Apia.”

Rees believes there is a problem in Samoa but it involves “ice” or harder drugs, rather than marijuana. It is an example of a problem that is more serious than the “youth gang reports”.

Sandra Kailahi believes Samoa is a great place to visit and wasn’t aware of the gang issue until the story.

“But in all honesty, I am not surprised given its strong ties and links to New Zealand, Samoa and America”.

Stopping place
She admits Samoa is not the only place where drugs are an issue as Tonga was used by many gangs as a stopping place.

“In one big case many years ago, drugs were hidden in root crops like yams bound for NZ”.

When asked why Samoan authorities and many news people reject the accusations of gangs in their country, Kailahi says: “A story like this can alter peoples’ perception of an ideal South Pacific destination and that translates in hard cash or lack of it”.

She also believes it might also be “about not being fakama” and the people felt shamed.

Samoan resident Annette Wazhia lives near Apia and says she is “very angry” about the allegations of gangs in Samoa.

“I haven't seen or heard of gangs in Samoa. It is a very safe place”.

She is one of the local people who believe the story is not true and is “saddened” by the story.

A Pacific Island representative who is not from Samoa but has visited the country many times agrees that Samoa is a safe place but believes there is some criminal activity.

“The motive is more to do with getting cash rather than competing for ‘turf’ which is quite an urban attitude,” said the representative, who declined to be named.

Frowned upon
The representative says that strong family ties in Samoa, community and church networks “frown upon gangs” and it would make it difficult for gangs such as exist in Western countries to take hold.

“If the gang culture does exist at all, it would not be ‘paraded’ as we find here in Auckland with patches because the networks will root it out very quickly”.

However, “wayward kids have been sent home by their families from US and NZ to get away from the gang environment”.

The same representative believes that Dreaver's story “lacked credibility because she got taken in by a group of kids who conned her into thinking they were ‘bigger’ than they really were”.

This person adds: “There could be guns being moved from American Samoa to Samoa … but I don't think that it is large enough to warrant trade.”

If the Samoan government does bring an action against TVNZ, Dreaver says: “I don't mind healthy debate but these accusations are defamatory and are a character assassination against me”.

Dreaver and her team at TVNZ will “fight it all the way”.

Lucy Mullinger is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University. She photographed the Samoan scene image ... "tarnished ideal destination".

Another piece of Barbara Dreaver's puzzle
Barbara Dreaver: The evil side of journalism
Barbara Dreaver affidavit on Pacific Media Watch
Jason Brown on the Samoan Observer 'shoot the messenger' threat
NZ drug trade fuels Samoa gun smuggling [video]

School 'unfairness' led to Moala’s media success

By Lucy Mullinger: Pacific Media Centre

Publisher Kalafi Moala’s civil rights streak began early – as a high school student. His friend and broadcaster Sefita Hao’uli told at the weekend how Moala had already brushed against government authority in school.

Teachers at the state-run Tonga High School, where Moala was head prefect, would “cane us if we tried to speak Tongan,” said Hao’uli.

Speaking at the launching of Moala’s second book, In Search of the Friendly Islands, Hao’uli described the clothes they had to wear at school – “thick blazers, socks up to our knees and caps in sweltering tropical heat”.

The boys were confused about why they needed to dress this way. But they knew one thing: “The moment you were in uniform you couldn’t speak Tongan.”

“We all thought what a silly uniform and why do we have to speak English, a language we don't understand?”

The unfair high school treatment propelled both men towards a media career.

Hao’uli later launched the 531pi Pacific community radio in Auckland and Moala now runs the government newspaper Kalonikali – the Chronicle. Twenty years ago when he sought help from the state paper, Moala was told his newspaper Taimi ‘o Tonga would not last three months.

New era
But the Taimi group has now taken over, marking a new era in government and press relations.

During the two decades he has owned the Taimi ‘o Tonga - a newspaper which according to Pacific Media Centre director Dr David Robie “aimed to bring alternative perspectives and voices into Tonga's public sphere” - government laws often curbed freedom of the press.

During October 1996, Moala was jailed for alleged contempt of Parliament and banned from his own country for more than four years, the newspaper was raided 12 times during a period of three years and he received death threats

His Auckland-based newspaper suffered because it practised “freedom of the press”.

Moala has won many different awards, including the Pacific Media Freedom Award for his fight for democratic reforms.

“I believe that without Taimi being in place, things wouldn't have changed as much as they have. Kalafi has made a real contribution to Tonga,” said Sefita Hao’uli.

“Any journalist worth his salt will learn how to write, spell and use proper syntax –
but without courage, the stories will be empty,” Hao’uli added.

“Kalafi is much more courageous than many of us.”

Finding solutions
Moala’s earlier book, Island Kingdom Strikes, published in 2002, was written mainly about the scandals and injustices that were carried out by the government and royal authorities. In Search of the Friendly Islands deals with Tonga’s problems and finding solutions.

According to his publisher, Ana Currie, Pasifika Foundation Press, a Hawai’i- based group, was keen to publish this book with the help of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre because of the “great work Kalafi has done for Tonga and the Pacific Islands”.

Currie met Moala back in 2003 and having lived in Hawai’i and travelled all over the Pacific, she appreciated “what Kalafi was fighting about”.

Innes Logan, publisher of Spasifik, the only mainstream media Pacific magazine in New Zealand, said: “There must be a new way we can confront the problems that we face”.

Moala said: “My dream and hope for Tonga is that we will have a nation with freedom and without anarchy”.

Picture: Kalafi Moala being interviewed by CBA's John Cameron and Shona Caughey at the book launching. Photo: Lucy Mullinger.

Lucy Mullinger is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course, AUT University.

Pasifika Foundation Press
Book launching photo gallery
In Search of the Friendly Islands