Seasonal disaster waiting to happen

THREE Papua New Guinean seasonal workers have dragged the country’s reputation through kangaroo dung again when they decided to rape a girl in Australia.
It was a disaster waiting to happen, a disaster which was approved by the unthinking action of a Government that did not know the psychological disposition of its own citizens.
Many of the seasonal workers selected to represent PNG on Australian farms are the worst kind of ambassadors. They are untrained, unemployed and under-educated.
Many have not worked on any semblance of a farm in their own country. They carry with them the tattered reputation of a developing country into a First World nation without a hope of furthering our good name but with every chance of damaging it further.
Many would not have passed any colleges or training institutions. Many would have failed their education or might have left work for disciplinary reasons. A lot come straight from the village or from settlements on the periphery of cities and towns.
You are exposing them to a First World country which rules of conduct are mostly guided by self-discipline.
It is a free society where alcohol is easily available at affordable prices, where women and girls dress freely and roam at will on their own into the wee hours of the night.
The atmosphere is toxic.
Papua New Guineans of a weak resolution in that kind of a situation are prone to the most diabolical and licentious actions. Can they be blamed for their actions? Yes, in part but partly it must be blamed upon the governments who rush to send them off in the name of employment abroad that it cannot create at home.
Australia, it must be known, is founded on the principles of a “white only Australia” policy. Its indigenous population was exposed to the most inhumane treatment and despised through much of the history of discovery and colonisation. White Australia only just came to its senses to apologise for its past misdemeanours.
England ceded Papua to Australia as a part of that country but Australia never wanted it. Only New Guinea was a German colony and became a territory after World War I.
Yet, Australia did not want to pick up Papua as one of its states and ceded be part of the new Papua New Guinea at Independence in 1975.
Even today, immigration rules of Australia are tougher on Papua New Guineans than with the other Pacific islanders.
Let us just say, they want to mind their own business so should we. It is totally embarrassing when PNG politicians demand that Australia do this or that for this. Seasonal workers are part of that confused mentality.
In such an atmosphere when seasonal workers are inserted with minimal training and rules of conduct, disaster of the sort that transpired a couple of weeks ago is bound to happen and happen repeatedly as the workers gain confidence and grow used to the Australian cultural scene.
The seasonal workers programme does not impart skills in either direction. What is learnt on Australian farms are not applicable at home because there are no large mechanised farms in PNG.
So, whatever the workers pick up in Australia is lost when they return home.
The temptation is greater to throw away one’s passport and remain in Australia and become a citizen.
Even the lowest rungs of the Australian social ladder are more attractive than more elevated rungs of the PNG social ladder.
It would be far better if semi-skilled or skilled workers in PNG’s extractive sectors or its manufacturing industry were employed in Australia.
The mining, oil and gas industry in Australia is large and diversified. The same miners and oil and gas players in Australia often come to PNG. The high discipline and strict safety requirements are standard in both countries.
Now here is where a lot of PNG skilled workforce can learn much and be able to also impart much to their Australian colleagues. The workers will return with skills and experience that would be most valuable in the industry back home.
In opting for seasonal workers, the PNG government is absconding its own duties to train and educate its people. It is packing its children through schools and then virtually abandoning the young adults that emerge at the end of the formal education process.
A land so blessed with plenty of arable land for the growth of virtually every crop under the sun.