Talking Point: How can this be fair?

SCOTT RANKIN asks whether Tasmanians are willing to turn a blind eye to migrant workers being treated badly.

Scott Rankin asks whether Tasmanians are willing to turn a blind eye to migrant workers being treated badly.

A WEEK ago on a berry farm run by Costa in the North-West, 70 pickers were found to be living in one house in squalid conditions, each paying $100 a week rent, and $20 a day transport, six days a week.

What are we witnessing here? Cheap imported labour or something worse? Terminology is important, because labels can dehumanise vulnerable people and legitimise unethical practice.

Perhaps we’d be more comfortable if we could convince ourselves it was a one-off on a small farm. An accident, an oversight. Sadly, not. This was big agribusiness in our state. This was a corporate citizen. These are sophisticated agricultural sites involving significant investment in earthworks, irrigation and drainage, utilising precision growing techniques. Big dollars per hectare, primarily for export. This is no expense spared for international best practice — except when it comes to labour — provided by our struggling Pacific neighbours.

What were these corporate citizens thinking? Tasmania belongs to all of us. Even if you forget empathy. Even if you wave away our international human rights obligations. You damage these vulnerable workers, you are damaging us, you damage Tasmania.

All societies are judged by how they treat their most vulnerable.

RELATED: ROT SETS IN OVER COSTA FRUIT PICKERS

Corporate citizens require a social licence to operate. The problem is, there is no such thing. Terms like “social licence” are mainly spin, often made up by a company’s corporate social responsibility team for marketing purposes.

Corporate Australia can and does do a great deal of good in the Australian community. But perhaps they’d do even better if they were required to renew a real licence to operate every year. To get a renewal, they could be required to accrue social value dividends, by doing more for their community.

Making 70 pickers sleep in derelict dwellings. Charging them exorbitant rent and transport, not in our community. Costa passed the buck to a “third-party provider”. Does this business deserve a licence to operate? Not at present.

Perhaps, as a community, we’d be more comfortable if we could convince ourselves it is the fault of the authorities. However, this exploitation is occurring in our communities. These are our farms, our neighbours. This is our culture, and we all need to take responsibility.

It is harder to hurt vulnerable people if you know their story. If our communities are inclusive, we are all safer. Story serves a protective function in our community and it is critical to wellbeing.

Perhaps, to get a social licence to operate businesses could fund welcoming micro-festivals for new workers, with celebrations of culture, food and music and a sharing of stories at the beginning and end of each picking season?

Arts in everyday life, co-operating with industry, building inclusion, promoting the Tasmanian brand.

Mostly we say “why weren’t we told?” But what else is happening in our community?

It is our responsibility as citizens and influencers to know what’s happening, and story, music and art have a role to play, illuminating hidden issues and promoting wellbeing.

Story can help us to back our government to bring about change and uphold a society of which we can be proud.Here’s another example of unacceptable work conditions in our midst we’re not told about — 95 per cent of everything we buy comes to us by ship. Go to Bunnings or Harvey Norman and the majority of the products come to us across the oceans. Right now, there are 1.4 million seafarers working on ships, plying the liquid highways that criss cross the globe.

About 600,000 of these work in appalling conditions as indentured labour and slaves. Therefore, almost everything we buy is touched by slavery. Yet this is a story hardly any of us hear or see - out of sight out of mind. This does not have to be the way.

Story is potent and persuasive, even to retail giants. We could illuminate this story of slavery at sea and insist everything we buy had a levy to keep the supply chain slave-free.

In one of his first interviews in the job, it was heartening to see Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein emphasise the importance of culture and the arts to Tasmania’s future. He talked of art and culture as an attractor, increasing tourism.

However, these cultural experiences will ring hollow if they include only one kind of story, for one kind of audience.

Art and culture need to be inclusive — an attractor and protector — because story can build inclusivity, diversity and vibrancy in our communities. It can celebrate the best of who we are, and shine a light on things we need to change.

If funded properly, the arts and culture is an inexpensive way to build better and more inclusive communities — even for those incrementally forced into shocking conditions by poor business practice.

Scott Rankin was the 2018 Tasmanian Australian of the Year and is chief executive of Big hART, Australia’s leading campaigning arts organisation.