Analysis Of The Impact Of Scott Morrison’s ‘No Slavery’ Comment On The Australian South Sea Islander Community

Facts

Slavery is considered to be one of the wrong things which took place in the human era. Slavery can be termed as a tragedy in which different individuals created a big room for inequality. Over the last few centuries, slavery has become part of human lives, and minorities and few communities have to suffer the most. The article “Scott Morrison’s ‘no slavery’ comment prompts descendants to invite him to sugar cane regions” by Kalle Buchanan talks about the comment made by Australian Prime Minister “Scott Morrison.”  Scott Morrison commented that there is no slavery in Australia and this statement triggered the Australian South Sea Islander community has been part of Slavery for 3 centuries (Buchanan, 2022). This essay will talk about the impact of the statement by the Australian Prime Minister. It will also state the fact which was made by the Australia South Sea Islander community. This essay will also critically analyze the article written by Kalle Buchanan.

Australian Prime Minister's Comment turned out to be tough to digest for the South Sea Islander community as it has been a known fact that the communities from the islander region are part of slavery since the 18^th century. The history of Australia shows that slavery has been a major part of Australian culture (Mcllroy, 2020). Australian prime minister said that there has been no slavery in Australia. But this statement looks quite contradictory as pieces of evidence have shown that Australia has witnessed major slavery. It has been seen that Australian Sea Islanders have always been involved in slavery. The article also talked about the fact that around 62,500 islanders were brought to Australia for slavery.

This fact has been proven right by different evidence as it has been seen that people from the Islander community were linked to slavery. People from the islander communities were brought to work in the sugar fields and that was one of the biggest examples of slavery. Mr. Turaga has talked about the slavery issue and presented his point that slavery has been quite visible in the country. It is just not a historical thing as it has been witnessed that even at present there are some places where slavery is taking place. Turaga has been campaigning against modern-day slavery which is present in the food chain supply of Australia (Wray-Bliss & Michelson, 2021). Turaga was also surprised after looking at the comment from the prime minister as he felt that the slavery situation is now worse as compared to the past. He also commented that the Australian prime minister should visit his area so that he can see the act of slavery and that can be made him change his statement. One can easily witness that the minority community of the islander’s people faced a lot of slavery issues in the past as they were taken from their native place to work in the other parts of the country. Australia's indigenous community has been affected by slavery for the past 3 centuries and this statement from the prime minister will be shocking. They are surprised because entire generations of islander’s people have been part of the slavery issue and no one can deny the pain that they suffered (Curthoys, 2021).

Opinions

This article is generally based on two opinions and that can be seen throughout the article as well. The first opinion is made by the prime minister of Australia on which the article is based and all discussions have been made. The opinion made by the prime minister is that “but there was no slavery in Australia”. This opinion of the prime minister turned out to be the base of this article. Another opinion in this article was presented by Mr. Turaga's perspective which was regarding the slavery present in the country is present. This opinion was made by Turaga as he is fighting for the rights of the people who are still being part of slavery. This opinion of Turaga has been made on the current events and the past events related to slavery in Australia. He also claimed that this comment from the prime minister will set back reforms for modern workers. Modern-day slavery is also a big thing and reforms are the ones that are helping individuals to live their life in a better way (Altman, 2017).

The author is trying to present the perspective of Mr. Turaga and the islander people who are part of slavery. He has focussed on the claims made by Mr. Turaga. It looks like that Author is much more inclined towards Mr. Turaga to counter the comment made by the Prime Minister. The discussion done in the article is completely based on the opinion of Mr. Turaga and it can be seen said that there are very anti-counter opinions related to Mr. Turaga's opinion. It is interesting to see that Mr. Turaga's opinion regarding modern-day slavery is presented in a major discussion. It looks like the author wants to highlight the issue of slavery issue as the major theme of this article.

This article has a major influence on society. It would not be wrong to say that the prime minister's comment already instigated the feeling of the islander’s people who were part of slavery. Mr. Turaga's comment regarding modern-day slavery will have a major impact on society. Modern-day slavery is one of the major social issues which is hardly talked about as people try to separate themselves from this issue. Modern-day slavery is a major challenge and it has been seen that issue of inequalities is linked with it. Australia is one of those countries where the inequality issue has played its major part and one can see a large section of society suffering from the same (Mapedzahama & Aidoo, 2017). This article has surely asked the questions related to modern-day slavery and it will become a major part of the discussion for the coming time as well. The impact on the potential readers could be quite big as the topic is quite vulnerable. Readers much are more aware of the challenges of slavery that are faced by the islander's people.

Potential Impacts

This story seems to cover the major impact of slavery on society. It would not be wrong to say that the storyline of the article will divert the attention of the readers towards the modern-day slavery which is going on in Australia. This article has presented the complete picture regarding the statement made by prime minister and also highlighted that Australia has been home to slavery and like other countries in the world, Australia has also witnessed slavery and in the modern world they are still facing the wrath of slavery. This article will help people identify the challenges which are faced by the workers in the food supply chain. According to research, it has been seen that the food supply chain of Australia is still witnessing a major issue of slavery (Landau & Marshall, 2018). Forced labor is an example of modern-day slavery and that is a big issue. Slavery style might have changed but there are still a large group of people in the country who are facing major challenges in form of slavery. This article will highlight the issue of slavery and people suffering from slavery challenges might get much-needed support from society.

It will also have a major impact on the current social norms as it has been seen that people talk about equality among people and there is also a big provision for the rights of the people. Society norms are important in the 21^st century as it presents a view about how an individual should live and what are the things which he should avoid to have a better way of living life. The rules and standards are defined through social norms. But this article will surely seek the attention of the social norms as some people are not able to live their life fully. This article will act as a major boost for anti-slavery campaigns as it presents the slavery scenario which is still going on in Australia. It would not be wrong to say that this story or article might bring a major change in the social norms and people of the society will be aware of the slavery issue which is going on in the country. Voices will be raised in support of the people who are becoming the victim of slavery and they might get out of modern-day slavery.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussions, it can be summarized that this article will spread awareness among the readers regarding the slavery issue which is going on in Australia. Modern-day slavery is still alive in the country and it is much worse than slavery in the 18^th century. Mr. Turaga's comments regarded slavery has started a new talk about the challenges faced by the people in the supply food chain. This article also denies the claim made by the prime minister regarding no slavery existed in Australia.  It presented the fact about islanders' people who were taken away from their native land and were forced to work as slaves. This article will bring some major changes in the social norm.

References

Altman, J. (2017). Modern slavery in remote Australia?. Arena Magazine (Fitzroy, Vic), (150), 12-15.

Buchanan, Kallee. "'Mate, Be Respectful Of Our History': Morrison's 'No Slavery' Comment Prompts Invite To Cane Regions". Abc.Net.Au, Last modified 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-12/call-for-scott-morrison-visit-bundaberg-to-learn-about-slavery/12347686.

Curthoys, A. (2021, February). From Montserrat to Settler-Colonial Australia: the Intersecting Histories of Caribbean Slave-owning Families, Transported British Radicals, and Indigenous Peoples. In History Workshop Journal (Vol. 90, pp. 211-232). Oxford Academic.

Landau, I., & Marshall, S. (2018). Should Australia be embracing the modern slavery model of regulation?. Federal Law Review, 46(2), 313-339.

Mapedzahama, V., & Kwansah-Aidoo, K. (2017). Blackness as burden? The lived experience of black Africans in Australia. Sage Open, 7(3), 2158244017720483.

McIlroy, J. (2020). Slavery endemic to Australian history. Green Left Weekly, (1269), 9.

 Wray-Bliss, E., & Michelson, G. (2021). Modern slavery and the discursive construction of a propertied freedom: Evidence from Australian business. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-15.