During the Cold War, between 1946 and 1996, the United States, United Kingdom, and France used Oc... more During the Cold War, between 1946 and 1996, the United States, United Kingdom, and France used Oceania as a laboratory for nuclear testing. The deserts and islands of Australia and the Pacific were perceived as vast, "empty" spaces, suitable for the testing of atomic bombs and thermonuclear weapons. More than 310 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests were conducted by the Western powers in their colonial dependencies or United Nations trust territories. Debate over colonialism, racism, and ethnic identity was a central feature of this nuclear era. The policies of the Western powers promoted a "nuclear racism" against Pacific Islanders, based on a racialized hierarchy of "civilized" and "primitive" peoples. These notions of racial superiority opened the way for medical experiments on Pacific Islanders affected by radioactive fallout, without free, prior, and informed consent. N. Maclellan (*)
Tony Abbott intervened in Scotland's referendum debate last month, worried about the threat to th... more Tony Abbott intervened in Scotland's referendum debate last month, worried about the threat to the Anglosphere. But independence is on the cards closer to home, writes Nic Maclellan Pollsters report a late surge in support for the Yes campaign in Scotland. Cams/Flickr When explorer James Cook first saw Grande Terre on 4 September 1774, the mountains of that Melanesian island reminded him of the Scottish highlands. "I called it New Caledonia," his journal records, "and, if we except New Zealand, it is perhaps the largest island in the South Pacific Ocean." I can't see it myself. In the past year, I've travelled both to Scotland and to New Caledonia. For the life of me, I couldn't detect much resemblance between the Scottish glens and the mountain valleys of Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia that so bewitched Cook. In spite of this, there's one contemporary connection between old Caledonia and New Caledonia. In Edinburgh and Noumea, people are debating independence.
The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of ... more The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Established by the US Congress in 1960, the Center serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options. The Center is an independent, public, nonprofit organization with funding from the US government, and additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and governments in the region.
It’s time to create opportunities for lower skilled workers in our region, argue Peter Mares and ... more It’s time to create opportunities for lower skilled workers in our region, argue Peter Mares and Nic Maclellan AT THE Pacific Islands Forum in Papua New Guinea this week John Howard is under renewed pressure to allow Pacific Islanders to work in Australia. The topic has long been on the agenda for Island leaders but at past forums Australia has side-stepped the issue. This time it will be harder to dodge, since access to the Australian labour market is a key component of the Pacific Plan - the blueprint on regional integration developed by the forum secretariat for consideration at this year’s leaders’ meeting. Australia and New Zealand want the forum island countries to speed up the implementation of regional trade agreements that will open their markets to foreign goods and capital. The island states insist that increased labour mobility is integral to these trade deals. This is not just a negotiating tactic. Remittances from overseas workers are already a crucial source of revenue for many island states (for example Fiji earns more from remittances than from either sugar or garment exports). Under a more liberal trade and investment regime the importance of remittances will grow: island governments hope offshore employment can replace jobs shed by industries that are currently subsidised or protected, and that workers’ remittances will help to compensate for revenue lost as import tariffs are removed. Without increased remittance income, the island states’ trade deficits will balloon from their already high levels, increasing their dependence on Australian aid. Shadow Pacific Affairs spokesman Bob Sercombe has recognised this link - labour mobility is an integral (if rather vague) component of his recent policy proposal for a ‘Pacific Community’, which helps to explain why it was so warmly endorsed by many Pacific leaders. There are other pressures on Australian to start thinking seriously about this issue. The combination of youth bulge (40 per cent of Pacific Islanders are under 20 years of age) and a lack of jobs is a volatile mix. Even if trade liberalisation eventually produces the economic nirvana in the Pacific that free market economists predict (which we doubt), there will be a lag before new jobs become available. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Australia has labour shortages that could be eased by employing Pacific Islanders, most notably in horticulture. The shortage of seasonal workers was highlighted in the National Farmers’ Federation Rural Labour Action Plan released last month. The NFF rightly argues that more must be done to increase domestic participation in the agricultural labour market. One obvious measure is better accommodation and transport options for seasonal workers. The NFF also recognises that much more could be done to encourage Indigenous workers into the horticultural industry (as demonstrated in a successful scheme supported by Noel Pearson’s Cape York Partnerships). But the NFF has also cautiously opened the door to a new visa for offshore workers in agriculture. The NFF is not proposing a guest worker scheme on the German model, where workers are separated from home and family for years at a time. The proposal is for a seasonal workers scheme to cover temporary gaps in the rural labour market at peak periods (like harvests). It stresses that overseas workers should be limited to industries and regions where there is evidence of a labour shortage, that they must be employed at local wages and conditions, that the program must contain an element of training and that the workers should come from countries that receive Australia aid dollars. These are sensible starting points. Another crucial element of any such scheme is that overseas workers should go home at the end of the season with the expectation of returning to Australia the following year. Canada’s long-running seasonal agricultural workers program shows that the promise of future employment dramatically reduces the risk of overstaying: foreign workers have little incentive to disappear into the community if they know a job awaits them next season. Facilitating the annual rotation of workers to and from Australia in this way has other advantages. It enables growers to retain the skills acquired by their offshore labour force. It encourages workers to repatriate money and skills gained in Australia and to invest them in enterprises at home. And it ameliorates the social costs of labour migration by limiting the separation of workers from their families and communities. The Australian government is considering recruiting Pacific Islanders to bolster troop numbers in an overstretched defence force, our rugby teams are stronger for the inclusion of the Pacific’s best players and we are busily importing Pacific doctors and nurses to staff our hospitals with little regard for the impact this brain drain may have on island nations. It’s time to look at creating job opportunities for those lower skilled workers left…
The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic dominated regional and international poli... more The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic dominated regional and international politics throughout 2020. Despite many Pacific countries avoiding the worst impacts, the pandemic highlighted social, political, and economic inequalities, with many vulnerable communities affected by overburdened health systems, changes in food production, and disruption of the formal and informal economy. Here, Maclellan discusses the economic impacts of COVID-19 in the Pacific.
This paper focuses on the RSE program and does not attempt to study skilled migration, the wider ... more This paper focuses on the RSE program and does not attempt to study skilled migration, the wider issue of temporary migrant workers in New Zealand or broader issues of migration policy (e.g. there are a range of other mechanisms for recruitment of Pacific workers into New Zealand, such as the Pacific Access quota, and there are particular issues relating to recruitment in other sectors, such as nursing and caregivers). It also focuses on issues relating to the recruitment of Pacific islanders, and does not discuss the hundreds of Asian workers who have also been recruited.
The ABC's international broadcasting to the Pacific islands is being devastated by the latest rou... more The ABC's international broadcasting to the Pacific islands is being devastated by the latest round of staffing cuts, writes Nic Maclellan "Too few people in Australia understand how important Radio Australia has been in the Pacific," says the ABC's Sean Dorney, shown here after he was expelled from Fiji for his reporting of the crisis there in 2009. Dean Lewins/ AAP Image We're sitting on the grass in the village of Matangi on the island of Futuna. This is one of the more isolated communities in Vanuatu, a small group of houses on a small island at the southeastern extreme of the archipelago. "We rely a lot on Radio Australia when there's a cyclone coming," says Miranda, a member of the island's Community Disaster Committee. "We have no telephone on this side of the island and we often can't hear Radio Vanuatu." As Australia debates budgets, debt and deficits, we rarely hear the views of communities affected by planned cuts. Whether it's the size of the aid budget or the resourcing of the services of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC, our neighbours have little input into decisions that affect their lives.
Since the 1990s, the media landscape has broadened in New Caledonia, with new magazines and websi... more Since the 1990s, the media landscape has broadened in New Caledonia, with new magazines and websites across the political spectrum. New Caledonia's FLNKS independence movement has long been supported by the community station Radio Djiido, which has expanded into live broadcasting and streaming on the web. But over the last decade, there has been an increase in opportunities for journalists to work with a range of new magazines, covering politics, culture, environment and economics. There is also increasing interest in the web among the young, with the beginning of internet blogging.
During the Cold War, between 1946 and 1996, the United States, United Kingdom, and France used Oc... more During the Cold War, between 1946 and 1996, the United States, United Kingdom, and France used Oceania as a laboratory for nuclear testing. The deserts and islands of Australia and the Pacific were perceived as vast, "empty" spaces, suitable for the testing of atomic bombs and thermonuclear weapons. More than 310 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests were conducted by the Western powers in their colonial dependencies or United Nations trust territories. Debate over colonialism, racism, and ethnic identity was a central feature of this nuclear era. The policies of the Western powers promoted a "nuclear racism" against Pacific Islanders, based on a racialized hierarchy of "civilized" and "primitive" peoples. These notions of racial superiority opened the way for medical experiments on Pacific Islanders affected by radioactive fallout, without free, prior, and informed consent. N. Maclellan (*)
Tony Abbott intervened in Scotland's referendum debate last month, worried about the threat to th... more Tony Abbott intervened in Scotland's referendum debate last month, worried about the threat to the Anglosphere. But independence is on the cards closer to home, writes Nic Maclellan Pollsters report a late surge in support for the Yes campaign in Scotland. Cams/Flickr When explorer James Cook first saw Grande Terre on 4 September 1774, the mountains of that Melanesian island reminded him of the Scottish highlands. "I called it New Caledonia," his journal records, "and, if we except New Zealand, it is perhaps the largest island in the South Pacific Ocean." I can't see it myself. In the past year, I've travelled both to Scotland and to New Caledonia. For the life of me, I couldn't detect much resemblance between the Scottish glens and the mountain valleys of Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia that so bewitched Cook. In spite of this, there's one contemporary connection between old Caledonia and New Caledonia. In Edinburgh and Noumea, people are debating independence.
The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of ... more The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Established by the US Congress in 1960, the Center serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options. The Center is an independent, public, nonprofit organization with funding from the US government, and additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and governments in the region.
It’s time to create opportunities for lower skilled workers in our region, argue Peter Mares and ... more It’s time to create opportunities for lower skilled workers in our region, argue Peter Mares and Nic Maclellan AT THE Pacific Islands Forum in Papua New Guinea this week John Howard is under renewed pressure to allow Pacific Islanders to work in Australia. The topic has long been on the agenda for Island leaders but at past forums Australia has side-stepped the issue. This time it will be harder to dodge, since access to the Australian labour market is a key component of the Pacific Plan - the blueprint on regional integration developed by the forum secretariat for consideration at this year’s leaders’ meeting. Australia and New Zealand want the forum island countries to speed up the implementation of regional trade agreements that will open their markets to foreign goods and capital. The island states insist that increased labour mobility is integral to these trade deals. This is not just a negotiating tactic. Remittances from overseas workers are already a crucial source of revenue for many island states (for example Fiji earns more from remittances than from either sugar or garment exports). Under a more liberal trade and investment regime the importance of remittances will grow: island governments hope offshore employment can replace jobs shed by industries that are currently subsidised or protected, and that workers’ remittances will help to compensate for revenue lost as import tariffs are removed. Without increased remittance income, the island states’ trade deficits will balloon from their already high levels, increasing their dependence on Australian aid. Shadow Pacific Affairs spokesman Bob Sercombe has recognised this link - labour mobility is an integral (if rather vague) component of his recent policy proposal for a ‘Pacific Community’, which helps to explain why it was so warmly endorsed by many Pacific leaders. There are other pressures on Australian to start thinking seriously about this issue. The combination of youth bulge (40 per cent of Pacific Islanders are under 20 years of age) and a lack of jobs is a volatile mix. Even if trade liberalisation eventually produces the economic nirvana in the Pacific that free market economists predict (which we doubt), there will be a lag before new jobs become available. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Australia has labour shortages that could be eased by employing Pacific Islanders, most notably in horticulture. The shortage of seasonal workers was highlighted in the National Farmers’ Federation Rural Labour Action Plan released last month. The NFF rightly argues that more must be done to increase domestic participation in the agricultural labour market. One obvious measure is better accommodation and transport options for seasonal workers. The NFF also recognises that much more could be done to encourage Indigenous workers into the horticultural industry (as demonstrated in a successful scheme supported by Noel Pearson’s Cape York Partnerships). But the NFF has also cautiously opened the door to a new visa for offshore workers in agriculture. The NFF is not proposing a guest worker scheme on the German model, where workers are separated from home and family for years at a time. The proposal is for a seasonal workers scheme to cover temporary gaps in the rural labour market at peak periods (like harvests). It stresses that overseas workers should be limited to industries and regions where there is evidence of a labour shortage, that they must be employed at local wages and conditions, that the program must contain an element of training and that the workers should come from countries that receive Australia aid dollars. These are sensible starting points. Another crucial element of any such scheme is that overseas workers should go home at the end of the season with the expectation of returning to Australia the following year. Canada’s long-running seasonal agricultural workers program shows that the promise of future employment dramatically reduces the risk of overstaying: foreign workers have little incentive to disappear into the community if they know a job awaits them next season. Facilitating the annual rotation of workers to and from Australia in this way has other advantages. It enables growers to retain the skills acquired by their offshore labour force. It encourages workers to repatriate money and skills gained in Australia and to invest them in enterprises at home. And it ameliorates the social costs of labour migration by limiting the separation of workers from their families and communities. The Australian government is considering recruiting Pacific Islanders to bolster troop numbers in an overstretched defence force, our rugby teams are stronger for the inclusion of the Pacific’s best players and we are busily importing Pacific doctors and nurses to staff our hospitals with little regard for the impact this brain drain may have on island nations. It’s time to look at creating job opportunities for those lower skilled workers left…
The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic dominated regional and international poli... more The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic dominated regional and international politics throughout 2020. Despite many Pacific countries avoiding the worst impacts, the pandemic highlighted social, political, and economic inequalities, with many vulnerable communities affected by overburdened health systems, changes in food production, and disruption of the formal and informal economy. Here, Maclellan discusses the economic impacts of COVID-19 in the Pacific.
This paper focuses on the RSE program and does not attempt to study skilled migration, the wider ... more This paper focuses on the RSE program and does not attempt to study skilled migration, the wider issue of temporary migrant workers in New Zealand or broader issues of migration policy (e.g. there are a range of other mechanisms for recruitment of Pacific workers into New Zealand, such as the Pacific Access quota, and there are particular issues relating to recruitment in other sectors, such as nursing and caregivers). It also focuses on issues relating to the recruitment of Pacific islanders, and does not discuss the hundreds of Asian workers who have also been recruited.
The ABC's international broadcasting to the Pacific islands is being devastated by the latest rou... more The ABC's international broadcasting to the Pacific islands is being devastated by the latest round of staffing cuts, writes Nic Maclellan "Too few people in Australia understand how important Radio Australia has been in the Pacific," says the ABC's Sean Dorney, shown here after he was expelled from Fiji for his reporting of the crisis there in 2009. Dean Lewins/ AAP Image We're sitting on the grass in the village of Matangi on the island of Futuna. This is one of the more isolated communities in Vanuatu, a small group of houses on a small island at the southeastern extreme of the archipelago. "We rely a lot on Radio Australia when there's a cyclone coming," says Miranda, a member of the island's Community Disaster Committee. "We have no telephone on this side of the island and we often can't hear Radio Vanuatu." As Australia debates budgets, debt and deficits, we rarely hear the views of communities affected by planned cuts. Whether it's the size of the aid budget or the resourcing of the services of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC, our neighbours have little input into decisions that affect their lives.
Since the 1990s, the media landscape has broadened in New Caledonia, with new magazines and websi... more Since the 1990s, the media landscape has broadened in New Caledonia, with new magazines and websites across the political spectrum. New Caledonia's FLNKS independence movement has long been supported by the community station Radio Djiido, which has expanded into live broadcasting and streaming on the web. But over the last decade, there has been an increase in opportunities for journalists to work with a range of new magazines, covering politics, culture, environment and economics. There is also increasing interest in the web among the young, with the beginning of internet blogging.
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