Comments

Thank you for this interesting piece. You mentioned 'workers who have let their visas lapse'. Could you please explain this a bit more? Have their visas lapsed because they cannot return home due to pandemic travel restrictions? I also have a question about how workers can check whether a potential employer is an 'Approved Employer'. Is there a way that workers can check that? A website where they are listed or a call centre that they can ring for advice? Thanks again, Amanda

It's interesting to note from the photo of the destruction in Epau village. The modern housing was blown away while the traditional bamboo walls with thatched roofing remains standing. As always the case in the Pacific, the communities are always picking up the pieces and will rebuild on their own after all the fly by experts returned.

Even some of the statistics provided are relevant much of the discussion are irrelevant on figures stated

Surely it will now make a big difference that the government takes over the helm as the sole country's agent & sub employer in terms of revenue generation & collection be alike compared to previous years since the establishment of RSE / SWP. More so the governments direct ownership intervention ensuring public interests are safeguarded & protected respective based upon agreements signed between the two governments, namely; New Zealand & Australia. Interesting the monitor and measure as well as other related employment development issues (etc)…interesting the trend difference benefits long term ?

Yes Dan, I agree with you the confusion over the visas has further complicated the issue. These contractors/employers are actively targeting SWP workers through various means and falsely coming across as approved employers in the scheme. They are approaching workers in their local host communities, and I have seen several posts by these rogue contractors advertising jobs on seasonal worker social media sites. It is vital we get the messaging out there to employers and workers to create awareness of this.

What is staggering is that many absconders are lured into running to dodgy contractors and NO ONE seems to know that they cannot do so on a 408 or 403 visa. Furthermore, they think a Bridging Visa is their final visa but this is not active while they hold their 408 or 403. In some cases rogue contractors and their middlemen are enticing these workers across with promises of more pay. Those contractors are breaking the law as well as the worker breaching the work limitation of their visas Then they don't often pay tax or super. The alarming thing is that some people who do abscond are actively encouraged to apply for asylum and get assistance to do so. Isn't that IMMIGRATION FRAUD?

Thank you, Amanda for capturing what is happening now in Papua New Guinea and especially in my home and Community Basamuk in regards to SIM Card Deactivation. Well stated as most people around Basamuk Area registered their SIM cards with the help of Nigel Uyam. Instead of traveling in Madang Town for SIM Card registration, Nigel Uyam did that in the Village both Digicel and Telkom SIM cards.

On patronage, Terence Wood has done some good work on voter clientelism: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app5.239 Pact or government formation process have been covered extensively by Michael Kabuni and Bal Kama: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327620367_Explaining_the_Paradox_of_Party_Instability_and_Political_Stability_in_Papua_New_Guinea_2012-2017 https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/archive/png-in-2017/png-in-2017-png-political-condition-to-2025.html On policy processes: the nomination fee is K1,000, still lower than the roughly K5,200 non-resource GDP per capita in 2017, which means that more people intending to run as candidates is possible. Former O'Neill government proposed an increase to K10,000 but failed to pass this amendment in Parliament. Perhaps the weakest part of candidate nomination requirements relates to having not committed a disciplinary/criminal offense in the past 9 months - any former crook with the means can contest the elections, increasing corruption levels. Also, reforms to the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC) in 2003 (imposing more stringent requirements on political party registration) seems to have kept party numbers steady at 43.

Very true, although for all the anecdotal evidence we've encountered, it is still difficult to measure.

Hi Helen, Thanks for your comments. They’re all good observations and I agree with most of them. Blogs at DevPol are limited to 1000 words, and our focus was more on the acute situation arising from COVID-19 rather than agricultural policy or food security more generally, so unfortunately we couldn't get into all of the issues you raised as much as we would have like. That said, simply because it’s such an important topic, I do have a few (admittedly inexpert) comments. You’re right that TL’s malnutrition crisis is complex, in fact given that it’s dragged on for decades I wonder if malnutrition syndrome wouldn’t be a better term for it. I’d argue that it does have a lot to do with the agricultural sector which hasn’t been a priority, although as you point out, there’s a tricky set of factors related to education, the labour market and Timor-Leste’s social economy at play. Unfortunately, too often, they haven’t been a priority either. Your observation that debates over the best way to feed a country are ongoing is also spot on. I think what we were trying to express is that at the present time most Timorese farms are pretty vulnerable in a way that they wouldn’t had there been more development in the agricultural sector, whether that be commercial or otherwise. Then again, my direct exposure of this issue mostly involves hanging out with swidden farmers (atoin pahan) in Oecussi who were very much invested in what you might call ‘traditional’ methods, so I’m not totally across the latest regarding the promotion of new seed varieties and such. We’re in total agreement with your point that talk about ‘investing’ in agriculture is usually couched in terms of money (in this case not that much money), and that that is not enough. It’s not the main focus of the blog, but I hope it's a point we make clearly enough. I also agree that gender is an indispensable aspect of the issue to consider. I’m sure you’re aware of the literature surrounding this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminization_of_agriculture We do actually mention that Timor has a history of war induced famine, although regrettably we didn’t have a chance to get into much detail. Shifting food preferences over the 60s, 70s and 80s (which occurred throughout Indonesia in different ways) are certainly a worthy topic, however it is beyond the scope of our short blog on the impact of COVID-19. As you say it is a pity that home-economics and nutrition haven’t gotten more traction in the TL education system. Without a doubt if people, in particular younger people, had more knowledge about this type of thing TL would be less vulnerable to food insecurity caused by international shocks such as COVID-19. I reckon I’ve seen some local products on sale in TL kios (eggs, salt, certain brands of bottled water, coffee satchels and liquor among them), and there’s certainly plenty of local stuff at the wet markets. That said, as you would know most people have very little money so cheaper Indonesian products tend to get up. Economies of scale and all that + convenience, and it simply being what people are used to. But I take your point. All the more reason why state support for local manufacturing is important. The Fiji example sounds interesting. Was there ever a cooking show on TVTL? I could totally see that taking off. I agree that food security and sovereignty have never genuinely caught the attention of 'elites' in Dili. Lamentably the resource curse really is a thing. Let's hope things will change. To be honest the future of TL probably depends on it.

These are really excellent points Helen. Thank you for your informed and detailed comment. Just chiming in to add that as we are a blog, we do have word limits that authors need to stick to, which could be why some of those points you raised were not in the piece, with the authors focusing more on the impact of COVID-19 on agriculture and food security. Highlighting that an already troubling and complex situation needs more than some ad-hoc money thrown at it, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, seems a fair point to raise. Do get in touch with us (devpolicy@anu.edu.au) if you would be interested in contributing a blog on other elements of the food security/ag policy etc, as it would be great to dive into this issue further. It seems to have been such a protracted issue in Timor-Leste where very little ground has been made. Particularly interesting to hear you compare it to Fiji, would be keen to hear more on this.

I have heard that some candidates stand with no intention of staying through to the end- aiming instead to be paid to stand down by other candidates. Other candidates stand to strategically split the vote of particular candidiates, to deliberately benefit their preferred candidate (sometimes their sponsor). So much political intrigue to untangle!