New Zealand lags behind yet again ...

As overseas jurisdictions uncover modern slavery, New Zealand lacks the legislation necessary to make a difference.

Hi everyone. Another busy few days including, of all things, working to re-situate a near two ton rock on my property. Believe it or not, a delivery truck managed to catch this huge rock while delivering me some trees. Wrenching it from the garden, it got wedged between the truck’s fuel tank and back wheel. Fortunately, we managed to get the truck free and no leaks from the tank. Granted, took almost three hours with the help of my mate Morgan and a block and tackle to get the stone back in place.

This latest newsletter takes on the increasingly important topic of modern slavery. A key researcher within the team I work with at IPAC (Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China) has recently uncovered very disturbing actions by large corporates overseas and yet New Zealand still has no modern slavery legislation.

I also include a link near the end to my previous column which was online only. It challenges Helen Clark and Don Brash’s rather extraordinary views on China and New Zealand.

Time of New Zealand to step up

In recent weeks several large international companies have been identified as participating – directly and indirectly – in the forced labour of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, China.  The major German chemical company BASF which is partnered with the Xinjiang Markor Chemical Industry was identified as having workers in the company going house to house to identify, re-educate, and effectively harass Uyghurs.  It is part of what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) called their fanghuiju campaign.

Soon after, Volkswagen (VW) has been caught up in similar issues due to its cooperation with the Chinese state-owned car manufacturing company SAIC.  The recent allegations are that forced labour was used to build a new test track at their joint facility in Turpan, in Eastern Xinjiang.  The allegations are serious enough that a major German investment fund may not invest in VW due to their ESG commitments.

VW has also, to its credit, self-identified that some of its Porsche, Bentley, and Audi cars have a part within that is likely made by forced labour.  Due to a law on the books of the United States of America, when this issue was identified by VW, it was reported and a remedy found.  Put simply, acts of modern slavery are not to be tolerated.

Which brings me to New Zealand.  We have no modern slavery law.  For a country that talks a big game about human rights, it remains remarkable to me that we still have no such modern slavery law, nor the likes of Magnitsky sanctions legislation either.  These companies mentioned above may be currently in the limelight, but there are many more, unwittingly or otherwise, who are benefiting from modern slavery or forced labour.  We as consumers are also participating if and when we buy goods manufactured by modern day slaves - be this via child labour, forced labour, and so on.  Particularly as consumers, we surely want to have assurances that what we are purchasing has been ethically produced?  The likes of World Vision and others have been calling for modern slavery laws and to be fair, a number of local companies have voluntarily set up modern day slavery reporting or because they conduct business in other countries with existing modern slavery legislation.

However, it remains well past time that we put a modern slavery law on our books here in New Zealand.  In the last parliament, I had a Bill in the ballot to introduce a very rudimentary modern slavery reporting scheme.  Put simply, it was a proposed law that would have required large firms to review their supply chains and annually confirm there is no forced labour/modern slavery involved in their supply chains.  The Bill was intended to encourage any government to implement a much wider modern slavery scheme, as I am the first to acknowledge that reporting only is not enough.   New Zealand also needs a system which not only identifies modern slavery within supply chains but has the legislative requirements in place to ensure, when identified, that it is publicly reported and then addressed.  Failure to do so should come with consequences as well, and not simply public shame.

Governments however, appear unable to progress such a law, getting confused it seems between international modern slavery dynamics and more domestic workplace conditions and rules.  As with many of the latest human rights developments, New Zealand need only look at other countries laws that are already in place.  In fact, in some countries, they have had the law for so long that they are now reviewing and improving such as in Australia.  Again, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel but simply adopt and learn from other countries already ahead of us.  The same applies to Magnitsky sanction regimes for human rights abusers – many other countries have a law that we here in New Zealand could simply adopt.

With credit to BASF, when colleagues of mine in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) wrote to the CEO a few days back, he immediately noted a ‘red line had been crossed’ and that BASF would accelerate is withdrawal from Xinjiang.  This is to be applauded.

Modern day slavery laws work.  It is well past time New Zealand caught up.

My previous column … online only

You may have missed my last op-ed on the important topic of New Zealand security and sovereignty. I wrote it only a few days after my last email newsletter so decided to publish online only -I don’t want to spam your inbox! Follow the link below to read and let me know what you think:

BRIEFS

Free speech continues to be a key topic, particularly as the Green Party seeks a new co-leader. In recent media commentaries by Greens, it seems that a person must have a single opinion on issues likes of the Treaty of Waitangi, gender and so forth. If this view is not ‘woke’ then you are not free to share such an opinion. I had to laugh at Chloe Swarbick talking about how terrible she believed the ‘culture wars’ are, with the implied message being those who disagree with her mad views are beyond wrong to even posit an opinion. It seemed lost on her that for there to be a ‘war’, there has to be at least two sides. The arrogance of such a perspective is only matched by ignorance.

And speaking of young people - did you know, the UK has just banned cellphones in schools, citing overwhelming evidence of how much distraction they cause. New Zealand is following suit, although you won’t see our media reporting these developments overseas. It doesn’t suit their agenda!

As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Simon