Comments

Thank you for your inspiration Emma. Cheering for you.

Andrew, Many thanks for the details of the rigidities I referred to in my blog. I hope other Approved Employers can also provide details of the immediate difficulties they are facing in getting official approval for the new arrangements they have worked out to minimise the effect on workers. For those readers who are not Approved Employers, I should explain that the new Deed of Agreement between the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business and Approved Employers came into effect from 1 January 2020, after many months of consultations. A sample of the Deed can be found here: https://docs.employment.gov.au/documents/seasonal-worker-programme-deed-agreement-effective-1-january-2020 Richard Curtain

I am compelled to share the experience we are having with the impracticalities of the Deed in this very challenging time. The following is to illustrate the complete and utter dismay we are experiencing with a system that does not serve the people it was set up to … Seasonal Workers, Growers and Approved Employers. Four women from Vanuatu finished their contract in Kununurra and were due to leave 23 March. The last flight to Vanuatu was cancelled and they are now stuck in Sydney. We contacted numerous AEs to find work for them and have found employment near Mildura, with another Approved Employer Labour Hire Service Provider. The ladies' visas have expired (we have applied for the bridging visa) and both the AE and the SWs are anxious to start their new work and get out of Sydney. However, the variation won’t be looked at until the pending accommodation form for Mildura is approved. The accommodation form has been submitted by the other AE Labour Hire Company and is waiting approval. We need to wait for that approval and then we have to apply, in our own name, to lodge the same accommodation form. As a result of the expired visas we have been advised by our Contract Manager we now must submit a Recruitment Plan … with Labour Market Testing … yet the department advised it was not looking at any new Recruitment Plans. Not only is this absolutely ludicrous its wasting more time (and the Seasonal Workers' money) and preventing the women from working! The Deed that we have signed up for has failed magnificently during this crisis. Given that policymakers and senior Department officials do not heed advice, suggestions or recommendations from AEs (who are legitimately building this program), with absolute genuine priority for the welfare of the SWs and our grower clients, nothing is being done to make this function efficiently. We have decided to transfer the SWs in Sydney to the AE in Mildura in an attempt to expedite the ladies' transition back into work (we understood this would take less time to be approved). However, we remain bogged down in government red tape, painfully slow processing and general lack of outcome-oriented practices ... despite the rhetoric from government agencies.

I have shared on LinkedIn with a comment. I think you are spot on. I have been involved in the internal plant health scene via the IPPC for many years, including as Chair of the Commission. One Health has not come up in this time and only last year we took a preliminary look at antimicrobial resistance. What do you see as the scope for plant health in One Health or other planetary initiatives?

Thank you for your comments Godfrey. You are well aware of the situation on the ground in East and Southern Africa and we do hope that COVID-19 will be controlled there as quickly as possible. Thank you for your work on food safety and your commitment to improving food security in Tanzania and beyond. I agree completely with you that we do need to work together across countries and regions to ensure sustainable access to adequate, safe and nutritious foods.

Really enjoyed reading this Issabelle!

Thank you Robyn for this constructive argument. It is a dismay how the COVID-19 turbulence will derail efforts to ensure adequate, safe and nutritious foods for all, particularly to already vulnerable food systems in low income countries. I commend you highlighting the concept of One Health/Planetary Health realizing the potential pitfall of intensifying food animal rearing on the environment and the possibility of forming a source of infection and spread of deadly pathogens with further linkage to livestock/wildlife interface and the practice of handling and consuming game animals, without forgetting the impact of agricultural expansion on the environment.

Update as of 02/04/2020 SOE: SOE extended for two months, but lockdown to be relaxed, meaning domestic travel restrictions to be lifted. International travel ban continues. Schools, government offices and businesses to operate as normal. Cases: No new cases. Some tests waiting results. PNG-Indonesian Border: A platoon of 30 to be deployed to support existing personnel at the borders. According to ESP Governor Alan Bird, all 24 persons of interest in Wewak came from Indonesia. He claims people crossing on daily basis. China: China gave K1 million, plus a promise of 2000 test kits. It raises concern though, as Dutch government stopped using the 600,000 test kits from China because some were defective. More European countries rejecting Chinese test kits for the same reason. Stimulus package: Government passed more than K5 billion stimulus package. Details of how it will be used is not yet released.

Who is doing the testings and how is it being done? Initial case was reported as negative – however report from overseas later confirmed the initial case as positive, thus I am unsure if reports of recent negative cases are actuals. Can we have an insight on Labs facilitating the tests in PNG and how equipped and knowledgeable the facilitators are.

I'm wondering if a corporate structure might be more practical.

Can't disagree with any of your points. Your essay did not say the people failed only that the leadership did. I'm not sure "starting from scratch" is even necessary. You will have observed that refugee camps are quickly served by ad-hoc arrangements springing up from the entrepreneurial spirit of the people themselves: "see a need= meet the need". Unfortunately such places are vulnerable to criminals who thrive in desperate situations. A city's charter will specify what the rules are and how those rules will be guaranteed. Paul Romer rightly points out that it is the rules that create the economic circumstances within which people live. The arbitration of the high court in a successful economy with a compatible judiciary at the local level will offer confidence that these rules are enforceable. If it fails people will move away. People hate nepotism.

Thanks so much Kay for your comments. Let us hope that going forward we can, as Julie Garnier said below, build resilience through the regeneration of nature, gender equity and social justice.