Slavery in Australia: Fact or Opinion? Critical Analysis

This article covers the history of slavery of South Sea Islander community in Australia and modern slavery in Australian supply chains. It provides factual data related to the history of slavery and the perspective of the writer. The potential impacts of the article on society, social norms and competing cultural ideas are also covered.

Assessment 1: Fact or
Opinion: Article
Critical Analysis
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
FACTS.............................................................................................................................................1
OPINIONS.......................................................................................................................................2
POTENTIAL IMPACT...................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
The Australian Prime Minister claimed that slavery did not exist in Australia in response
to in response to the removal of statue of British explorer James Cook. The article covers the
subject of slavery of South Sea Islander community which is an important but often ignored part
of Australian history along with modern slavery in Australian supply chains. The facts of history
of slavery in Australia and perspective of the writer is provided below. Apart from this, the
potential impacts of the article on society, social norms and competing cultural ideas are also
covered.
MAIN BODY
FACTS
The article covers factual data related to the history of slavery of South Sea Islander community
in Australia. 62,500 south sea islanders were bought to Australia as a slave to work on farms.
The fact that there are thousands of unmarked graves of south sea islanders who were coerced or
‘blackbirded’ to Australia between the 1960’s and 1900’s is also covered in his article. The part
of the article which focus on slavery in Australia including the practice of Blacbirding are factual
truth of Australian history (No Slavery in Australia’? These Pacific Islanders Tell a Different
Story, 2021). This was a slavery practice which involved coercing people through deception or
kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid workers in countries distant to their native lands.
This slavery practice was applied on large scale abduction of indigenous people from the pacific
island which also includes south sea islanders. These salves were taken from different parts of
the pacific islands including Solomon Island, Tuvalu, Gilbert Islands and Cook Islands. This was
done to fulfil demand for cheap labour in any part of Australia including New South Wales and
Queensland. In addition to this mistreatment of migrant workers in Australia is also highlighted
in the article which is a fact. The evidence for modern slavery in Australia can be seen in the Fair
Work Obudsman’s Harvest trail inquiry. This inquiry completed 836 investigations involving
444 growers and 194 labour hire contractors in Australia. The result of inquiry showed breach of
employment laws including underpayment, falsification of records, deliberate withholding of
payslips and unauthorised deductions (More than $1m in lost wages recovered for 2,500 fruit
farm workers, 2018). This depicted the presence of modern slavery in Australia’s largest rural
industries. Growers in Australia heavily rely on cheap foreign labour who are vulnerable to
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exploitation because of cultural barriers and lack of knowledge on workers’ rights. Many of the
foreign workers exploited by the Australian agricultural industry includes pacific islanders who
enter Australia under the seasonal workers scheme in introduced by the government in the year
2012. This shows that the history of balckbirding south sea islander is connected with the current
situation of modern slavery and exploitation of migrant workers in Australia.
OPINIONS
The central opinion of the article is that the history of slavery and south sea islander
community is often ignored part of Australian history. The origins of this element of this story is
based on the claims of Australian prime Minister Scott Morrison that slavery did not exist in
Australia (Prime Minister criticised after suggesting 'no slavery' in Australia's history, 2021).
This showcases that since the Prime Minister is not aware of the brutal history associated with
slavery in Australia, normal public will have even less knowledge about the current state and
past exploitation of the south sea islander community. The article also provides the first hand
opinion of south sea islander community members who are offended by the statement of Prime
Minister as the head of state does not have knowledge of Australian history related to the
exploitation and mistreatment of their ancestors. The article relates to lack of knowledge about
history of slavery by political class of Australia with cases of modern slavery. This is done by
providing facts about presence of modern slavery in the Australian supply chain. The perspective
of the writer is that ignorance of historic slavery of south sea islanders in Australia by the
political class will support modern salary in Australian food supply chain. The origin of this
perspective is that lack of acceptance of slavery in Australia by the head of state sets back
reforms taken to combat modern slavery in Australia. In addition to this another opinion
expressed in the article is that schooling in Australia needs to cover the history related to slavery
to make people aware of the brutal aspects of the colonial settlement in the country. The
perspective of the writer is that it will help increase awareness of Australia’s past of slavery and
make the public more sensitive about issues related to modern slavery in Australia. The origin of
this opinion is the lack of strict laws to handle modern slavery in Australia. Recently a case of
intentionally possessing ownership of a salve emerged in Australia which showcases the
presence of modern slavery challenges in Australia (Australia urgently needs a compensation
scheme for victims of slavery – without it there can be no justice, 2021).
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POTENTIAL IMPACT
This article impacts the views of Australian readers on the history and current state of the
country in context of slavery. The first-hand account provides in the article from the south sea
islander on the offensive claims of the Prime minister will impact the readers to look into the
history of Australian slavery and blackbirding. Another potential impact of the article of the
readers is that it will increase their awareness on the ignorance of political class on social issues
on Australia. This is because the reaction of south sea islander on the claim of Australian prime
minister are covered in this report along with facts providing the true history of slavery in
Australia. Factual and experiential information affects individuals more deeply compared to facts
or experience provided singularly (McGannon Staden & McMahon, 2021).
The opinion of Australian society on the issue of slavery in Australia is limited as most
people are not even aware of that such issues and exploitation was part of the Australian past. In
addition to this many individuals in Australia also do not know about the unmarked graves of
south sea island slave workers across Australia. The article describes the presence of thousands
of unmarked graves belonging to south sea workers who were enslaved by the colonial settlers.
This fact is provided alongside the experience of labour MP Brian Courtice in getting a
plantation with 29 unmarked graves of south sea islanders heritage listed. This will make
positively impact the public opinion on Australian slave history as the article presents, first-hand
experiences alongside factual data. This will influence the readers to reflect on the colonial past
of Australia specifically on the slave trade that existed in the country.
The article also includes statement from Labour MP Brian Courtice about the ignorance of the
history of south seal islander communities by the political establishment of Australia. The MP
campaigned for the recognition of contribution of South Sea Islanders to Australia’s prosperity.
This will provide the reason an expert opinion on the ignorance in the current Australian politics
about the topics of slavery. This will play an important role in converging social norms related to
colonial past and increase the sensitivity of Australian public towards the situations of the south
sea islander community. This article will impact the readers to take action and lean more about
the injustice faced by the south sea islander communities. Written pieces which expose a
previously unknown situation in the mainstream affect individuals to look into the issue to great
detail (Tsipursky, Votta & Mulick, 2018). The readers of the article will become aware of the
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unknowledgeable politicians demand a political establishment which does not ignore the
histories of different communities who contributed to the formation of present day Australia.
The information about mistreatment and impact of slavery on descendants of the enslaved
south islander people will expose the brutal realities associated with Australia’s past and change
opinions of readers as the article is written to communicate perspectives in an emotional manner.
This article will increase empathy of general public towards the south sea slander community
and persuade them to look at the anti-slavery steps taken by the political establishment to
improve the situation for the south sea islander community. This is because interviews with
individuals helps the reader empathize with their situation (Jain, 2021).
The article also contains information about the presence of modern slavery in Australia and
mistreatment of migrant workers in Australian food supply chain. This will help challenge public
options that Australia is slavery free state to that slavery is not a big problem in Australia
compared to other third-world countries. Reader will come to know about the exploitation
conducted in the food industry of the country and the apathy of the political leaders of the
country towards Australia’s history and present associated with different forms of slavery. The
will challenge the readers understand their current knowledge of modern slavery and slavery
laws present in Australia.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that political leadership and general public of
Australia do not have any knowledge of Australian history related to slavery. The past of slavery
is till affecting south sea islander community in Australia and ignorance from the political class
on history of slavery is offensive to the mistreatment faced by the community. It is important for
the general public and leaders to increase their knowledge on the issues related to slavery in
Australia so that action can be taken to combat modern slavery in Australia. Modern slavery
exists in Australia in the food industry supply chain and the reforms to tackle modern slavery
will be affected by apathy of the political class towards brutal history of Australia.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Jain, P. (2021). The COVID-19 Pandemic and Positive Psychology: The Role of News and Trust
in News on Mental Health and Well-Being. Journal of Health Communication, 26(5),
317-327.
McGannon, K. R., Staden, T. G., & McMahon, J. (2021). From superhero to human: A narrative
analysis of digital news stories of retirement from the NFL due to injury. Journal of
Applied Sport Psychology, 1-20.
Tsipursky, G., Votta, F., & Mulick, J. (2018). Fighting Fake News with Psychology. The Pro-
Truth Pledge. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Forthcoming.
Online
Australia urgently needs a compensation scheme for victims of slavery – without it there can be
no justice, 2021. [Online] Available through
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/06/australia-urgently-needs-a-
compensation-scheme-for-victims-of-slavery-without-it-there-can-be-no-justice
More than $1m in lost wages recovered for 2,500 fruit farm workers, 2018. [Online] Available
through https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/22/more-than-1m-in-
lost-wages-recovered-for-2500-fruit-farm-workers
No Slavery in Australia’? These Pacific Islanders Tell a Different Story, 2021. [Online]
Available through < https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/world/australia/south-sea-
islanders-slavery.html>
Prime Minister criticised after suggesting 'no slavery' in Australia's history, 2021. [Online]
Available through https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/prime-minister-criticised-
after-suggesting-no-slavery/12346388
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