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Matt Withers and Sophia Kagan assert that the freedom for PALM workers to change their employer is a human right and therefore is not an option. In other words, they claim that the freedom to change employers is an absolute human right, enforceable regardless of the circumstances or context. But this is not the case. As the Australian Human Rights Commission notes ‘most civil and political rights are not absolute’. The same also applies to social and economic rights which are aspirational rather than enforceable. As we know, the right to free speech does not include the right to cry fire in a crowded, enclosed space at the first sign of smoke. The public good dictates that a more measured response is needed to minimise the harm caused to others. So also with PALM workers who are mostly employed as a group. For an individual worker to respond to the first sign of smoke (or problem) in the workplace exercising an ‘exit’ option rather than ‘voice’ is highly likely to affect the other workers in the same workplace. This affect could include creating a panic response by other workers to also leave rather than work through the problem. The exit option by a worker or workers would also be likely to undermine the ongoing employment of other workers. This was the case during the extreme worker shortages under Covid-19. Rogue labour contractors enticed some workers to leave their approved employer by offers of cash in-hand wages and lower cost accommodation. This created a greatly increased work burden on the workers who wanted to stay with their existing employer. It also exposed the workers who left their employer to manipulation by these rogue contractors, such as withholding their passports. How a worker defines what is unfair treatment will vary widely. It can range from a minor issue that can be resolved quickly through a mediator to a major issue that cannot be resolved easily. Also crucial is how quickly a worker decides when the matter of concern cannot be resolved at the workplace. There are mechanisms in place to respond where a problem has occurred, involving welfare officers provided by employers, and the country liaison officers. Also available to respond to worker concerns are those providing worker support through the network operated by PALM scheme Community Connections program managed by the Salvation Army. The program involves local community members from the New South Wales Council for Pacific Communities, Pacific Island Council of Queensland and Uniting Church of Australia in Victoria and Tasmania. If the matter cannot be resolved at the workplace level, the approved employer, who may be a grower or a labour hire operator, can be asked by the authorities to allow the worker to change to another approved employer. Withers and Kagan recommend that workers wanting to change employers should be able to join a recruitment pool for PALM workers already in-country who are looking to change employers. However, if workers are not willing to use existing support mechanisms in their workplace, are they going to put their name on a public list? If they do, will employers be willing to hire these workers from that list. Withers and Kagan also claim a precedent exists for short-term seasonal workers in the UK to have the ability to change employers provided they are still have the same immigration sponsor. This is similar to the situation in Australia. Most seasonal workers are employed by a labour hire operator who is their approved employer and official sponsor for immigration purposes. This means they are not tied to a specific workplace and can move, with the approval of their labour hire employer. It is very much in the labour hire firm’s interest to do so because the investment they already have made in time and effort to ensure the worker is productively employed.

Excellent observations, Kingtau. While PNG shares similar fundamentals with Malaysia, such as collective culture, or being sensitive to social hierarchy, etc... we used these wrongly, I would think. We used our collective culture to reinforce or normalise things that are not serving our collective good - like corruption, or hatred towards a foreigner evading taxes disguising xenophobia, while we ignore our own big men misusing tax revenues. We also respect those in power even if they're abusing that power. If only we understood the power of group thinking and aligned it in the right trajectory, we could have been somewhere ahead already.

Great comparative analysis! It is interesting to see value of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index for PNG to be below the one for Malaysia in 1997. I am wondering what were the underlying factors and if some lessons from the past could still be relevant today.

It would be better if we can create a talk back show and get every young ones to talk about what they're really facing today in their everyday lives. Let them speak up for themselves, the people in the parliament won't come out to the public and start interviewing youngsters on the street. Or else, make awareness throughout the whole nation instead of Port Moresby alone. Think about the next generation and what could possibly happen if we don't step out of our comfort zones and start acting for others.

How to register for seasonal work and does it need a specific experience? I would love to work even though I have not much experience, only the one for the village life where I grew up doing all the farm work on my grandparents' farm.

In my experience this article succinctly captures an elephant, or should that be a veritable herd of elephants in the room of the public service that is either overlooked, ignored or missed completely? Often something that on paper appears to be a straightforward to implement becomes irretrievably mired in “politics”. Not politics in the accepted sense but rather as Mark has described it. An impenetrable wall of silence, polite obfuscation or “mi no savi” that is part of what Professor Severus Snape would probably have described as the workings of the dark arts. The flow on effect is most deeply felt at the community level. The manifestations of clientelism go a long way towards explaining why drugs are not delivered to a particular area, why a teacher who abandoned a school years ago and returned to their home province still remains on the payroll even though the school is no longer operating. The machinations are endless. If you ask at the community level something is generally muttered about “O, em blo gavman tasol.” A polite passing of the issue back the one entity almost nobody trusts. If you ask at district or the provincial office, the query is either met with blank looks or is passed off as a matter for someone else, who if they can ever be found will tell you there is no money for that. Everybody has their excuse, their long-practiced alibi. The point being, communities, the bottom feeders in the service delivery food chain are not empowered to drive the kind of change that might make a difference. In a clientelist environment power vests with government actors who remain unaccountable to the people they are supposed to represent. In practice the majority of public servants do not represent or act in the best interests of communities. Indeed, given the workings of clientelism, they might jeopardise their positions if they did. And the people at the bottom of the food chain know this implicitly. It should therefore not be a surprise that women die in childbirth in horrendous numbers and youth, many of whom have access to social media but not an education that leads to a meaningful job are rebelling in greater numbers and in ever more concerning ways as time passes. This is where I take issue with models of development that do not recognise that in such a hugely diverse society, a country that was cobbled together to suit its colonial overlords over a century ago, where hyper regionalism and clientelism prevail, the Westminster system of public service, "without fear or favour and in the best interests of the common good" and all that are just a line in a manual. As a keen observer of PNG for four decades I believe time has run out for a development approach that while undoubtedly well-meant, has in practice left ninety percent of the population without the tools to lift themselves out of the dire situations they now find themselves in. I believe Mark’s analysis has thrown down a gauntlet to those who live by a Canberra facing model with no pathway to empower the target population that desperately craves change. We have GEDSI and MERLA but what do we have for ten million rural folks who live by patronage in ten thousand clientelist mini states. Where are the culturally appropriate approaches to mobilise their own talent to facilitate the basic services and economic development they can manage in a sustainable manner? A layer of activities that directly addresses and meets the needs of women and girls and gives youth greater agency over the outcomes they desire. Activities to supplement and extend the reach of government but not detract from it while it in turn gets its house in order. Until and unless we as the nations largest donor partner understand the elephants lounging around in plain sight, the ones we have long chosen to ignore and adjust our focus to directly facilitate community empowerment, expect the unexpected.

You are absolutely correct that the global community is obsessing about other conflicts while ignoring the conflict in Sudan which these days directly affects many Australians.

Hi Kelly and Stephen this is very useful. Thank you so much for conducting such research. The views expressed by the students reflect broader public perceptions!

Many thanks for picking up, Kelly. I suspect that the study of "economics" means the eventual graduate is more marketable, public or private. The universities' paradigm of "economics" favours the private sector over the public, unless it's Keynesian economics. So I was more thinking of graduates not in economics. For example, my course went to the heart of what good and effective government means and can be tested. I would have hoped that UPNG would have been very interested in what happens to the lives of its general graduates.

Thank you, Pak Eddie, for your thoughtful comment. I’m truly impressed by your work, especially with OpenSID. I completely agree that empowering civil society organisations (CSOs) and ordinary citizens at the village level to speak out about issues related to resource allocation is vital for tackling corruption. However, it's not as straightforward as it may seem. One major challenge is the absence of a dedicated whistleblower protection law in our country, which would shield those who report corruption. When we consider the risks and consequences involved, the costs for whistleblowers often feel much greater than any immediate incentives they might receive. Additionally, there are cultural factors at play—individuals who report corruption often face social exclusion from their communities, which can significantly impact their lives. This is a tough but crucial issue that needs to be addressed. Therefore, the state must ensure the physical, emotional, and economic safety of whistleblowers and their families. Another factor that could help is increasing the willingness of public officials, including district heads, mayors, and parliament members, to seriously confront corruption at the local level. Salam, Garry Rosario da Gama

Glad that you mentioned the need to encourage and facilitate the involvement of civil society organisations. Grass-roots movements can complement and fill the gap that top-down approaches have not been able to reach or sustain. Our experience at Perkumpulan Desa Digital Terbuka has shown that involving and empowering villages directly in a sustainable manner can achieve results that uncoordinated and intermittent national efforts struggle with. With this village-centric approach, our open source community based village information system, OpenSID, is now actively used daily by more than 8,200 villages (and growing) to improve village administration, services to all their residents, and importantly transparency and accountability. In particular, many villages using OpenSID have regularly been successful in the annual KPK village anti-corruption competitions.

Keep up the great work! Thank you so much for sharing a great post.