Anglican Communion News Service

The Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, the Most Revd Peter Watson, said tonight that the peaceful demonstrators at the recent World Economic Forum S11 protest represented the concerns of many Australians over globalisation.

He also called for a mutual obligation policy where governments and the corporate world also meet their obligations, and for political leadership based on the common good, not opinion polls.

Speaking in his opening address at the start of the Melbourne Synod, Archbishop Watson said that you do not have to be an expert to know that all is not well. "I am not a specialist physician or surgeon… Yet I know when something is wrong with me, I know when things are not 'quite right'." He added: " I do not - cannot - grasp every detail and subtlety about the workings of economies and governments… But I am still a consumer, and they want my money; I am still enrolled as a voter, and they want my vote. So I - and you - must not be cowed to silence… I do not celebrate ignorance and make it a virtue, but I do insist on the right to ask the questions."

He continued: "There is a legitimate concern that global corporations seem to be more concerned with satisfying the desires of their shareholders than they are with the general interests and well-being of the communities of people who work for them and who use their services or buy their products. A large corporation will close its plant in Victoria, putting breadwinners out of work, and then re-locate in South-East Asia - simply because labour costs and conditions are cheaper there. A classic illustration, given by Tim Colebatch in a recent edition of The Age, is the appliance manufacturer Email's much-disputed plan to move the manufacture of wiring harnesses for refrigerators from Orange, NSW, to China.

"The company argues that the move will clip $15 from the cost of a fridge, and that it will help protect the jobs of its other workers in Orange. The unions and the city council argue that it will mean financial ruin for the 130 workers who will lose their jobs, for whom there is little prospect of new jobs. This highlights something of the concern with globalisation where people come a poor second to profits. But we must ask ourselves about the degree to which we, as enthusiastic consumers, are unwittingly implicated in this process.

"Our concern must be the unscrupulous exploitation of workers - particularly in the notorious sweatshops of some Asian countries. But we can take no comfort that the problem resides 'somewhere else'. The Textile, Footwear and Clothing Union of Australia (Vic), in a recently-drafted submission to the Victorian Industrial Relations Task Force, estimates that there are more than 300 000 home-based clothing-industry outworkers in Australia, and that many (if not most) are working under unregulated, exploitative and intolerable conditions. Most are migrant women from non-English speaking backgrounds. Families are inexorably drawn into this oppressive web, and the Submission estimates that some 36 000 Victorian children may be involved for hours each day after school helping their parents complete piece-work. Adult pay rates of $1.00 to $2.00 per hour are not uncommon. Let us be clear: these outworkers are not 'self-starters' or 'creative entrepreneurs', living out some grand Aussie dream. For the most part, they are exploited people seeking to scratch out a living. The picture painted by the Submission has more in common with the early chapters of Exodus, where the Hebrews were enslaved by their overlords, than with the civil society our nation aspires to be.

"Many of us will also know of people who have been retrenched as the result of 'downsizing' in the name of efficiency and competition. And many of those in work are working longer hours under greater stress, while there are many who can't find work or don't have sufficient work. Social researcher Hugh Mackay estimates that 'the full-time workforce is working such long hours that their overtime alone absorbs another half-million full-time jobs, while two million Australians are either unemployed or seriously under-employed.'

"It's interesting to note the World Bank also shares some concerns about globalisation. In its report Quality of Growth, it decries governments for their obsessive focus on the GDP as a measure of wealth. The report also includes some alarming figures: there are at least 100 million more people living in poverty than a decade ago… Add to this alarming statistic the chilling note by military historian, John Keegan, that an estimated 1000 soldiers, and 5000 civilians, die everyday in armed conflicts. This amounts to a staggering total of 75 million deaths over the last 35 years alone. The ever-increasing number of the dead is partly a product of international arms traffic, which has been called 'the largest international trade… of our day.'

"Of course there are limits to what governments can do to offset corporate greed and the negative effects of globalisation, but governments must not forget that they have been democratically elected to serve the needs of all the people, not just the powerful.

Mutual obligation - governments and business also have obligations

"This brings me to the term, 'mutual obligation', which has been used by the Federal government, in particular to describe the basis upon which it believes a national social welfare policy should be built. I'm sure none of us would wish to argue, for example, that those who receive unemployment benefits should not be fulfilling their part of the 'mutual obligation' and doing their utmost to find both skills and work.

"But what concerns me is that the idea seems to be applied more to the recipients of assistance than it is to the other significant players on the field - governments and the corporate world.

"There are more job applicants than there are positions available to be filled. Clearly, not everyone will be able to find work unless business and government strengthen their commitment to providing more jobs. We all know that more is done by fewer people. Some of you here no doubt fit that description. We all know people in the work force who leave home early every day, and return late often missing time with their children. There is not time for me to address the worrying issues of youth suicide and the widespread use of recreational and hard drugs by the young. Is our pressured family life one of the causes?

Leadership should be driven by the common good, not opinion polls

"Mutuality for Christians has traditionally meant giving freely to others, especially those more needy, and not counting the cost. As a society we must be careful not to lay down mean-spirited or unrealistic conditions for every act of kindness and generosity towards those who have fallen on hard times. God calls us to be stewards of His creation, sharing its harvest and the fruits of our God-given gifts and abilities for the good of all - indeed, the 'common good'. I use this term quite deliberately. Surely it's time for this expression and the assumptions which lie behind it to come back in from the cold. We long for leadership that will look beyond the opinion polls and the ballot box and courageously seek the common good. The fact that the term has so conspicuously fallen out of currency in our public discourses says much about creeping secularism in Australia today. But we are not a selfish people. The same idealism, service, care and love for others shown by such Australian icons as 'Weary' Dunlop, Fred Hollows and Eddie Mabo, are still a vital part of the Australian soul and identity."