After a year-long investigation, a report released lastweek by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Bevan Doherty, revealed that two
sports apparel companies have been using child labour to stitch balls together
for a dollar a day. Canterbury Clothing
Company, one of New Zealand's best-known clothing labels, is one of the
companies named, yet has anyone seen an article about this on a New
Zealand media website to date?
The Sydney Morning Herald is owned by Fairfax News
Media. Fairfax also owns many of New
Zealand's print and online 'newspapers'. I discovered this story because of the
furore on Australian media websites last week. The other company involved, Sherrin, is
undergoing a lot of scrutiny in Australia and has already lost credibility.
Established in Christchurch in 1904, Canterbury Clothing
Company is now a global sports apparel leader. It sponsors numerous professional rugby teams
around the world, the NZ Warriors rugby league team and recently has ventured
into sponsoring Portsmouth football club
in England. It’s global recognition came
from the time when it sponsored the All Blacks, which it did until 1999. The majority of CCC manufacturing is done
overseas now but the company’s image is
still closely linked with New Zealand. The logo depicts three Kiwis for goodness sake! Surely
the fact that some of its products have been produced by illegal child labour should warrant some
coverage and scrutiny from the mainstream news media in NZ?
There are several parties involved who may have directly or indirectly
had an impact on this becoming a non-story in New Zealand.
CCC
The most obvious would be the company itself. If the NZ media really focused on this story
as much as their Australian counterparts did then CCC would have to fight hard
to maintain its brand image. Sherrin,
who produce the official ball for Australian Rules Football, are dealing
with the possibility of losing those rights and the subsequent loss of revenue.
If the media chose to pick this up in
New Zealand what would the reaction be? What
would be the ramifications in terms of lost sales and negative impact on the
CCC brand? In terms of sponsorship, no other
sports apparel company invests as much into
the NZ sport scene at all levels of competition.
According to a message on their website, from Canterbury Global CEO Chris Stephenson the company is concerned about these allegations:
"We are extremely concerned about recent media claims of
child labour in connection with the production of Canterbury-branded sports
products in India.
An internal investigation is occurring as a
result. But when was the last time the NZ
media left a company to do internal investigations? Where is the accountability?
Media
The lack of coverage on such a relevant story in New Zealand
is the most mystifying part of this whole situation.
Is it because they believe that the New Zealand public wouldn’t
find a story about child labour relevant?
Considering the increasing demand for ethically made goods in NZ, I
would say people do care about this issue.
Social enterprises like Fair Trade, Trade Aid and Freeset have brand
recognition in NZ which wasn’t there a decade ago. The NZ public also show their concern for
global human rights with their money. Recent studies have shown that individual
Kiwis are some of the most generous financial givers to charities in the world.
Many people would at least know someone who sponsors a child through World
Vision.
Is it because these
kinds of stories don’t sell advertising, their main source of revenue that the
media sites aren’t running them?
Maybe. But when did news media
sites in NZ become solely about producing entertaining articles? Is it the fact that New Zealand media are
spread too thin and therefore busy trying to fulfil the public’s insatiable
desire for entertainment?
Another way of looking at it is what do they have to lose if
they published this story? It certainly
wouldn’t be credibility.
Consumers
Or is it us, the consumers?
Are we more excited by media outlets producing entertaining stories than
actual news? Is it the same people who
do World Vision 40hr Famines who made an article about an eel stuck up a man’s backside the most-read
article on the NZ Herald website for three days straight last week (I'm not linking it sorry)? Are we afraid of knowing the truth- is ignorance
bliss when it comes to understanding how the products we are consuming were
made? Would we be bound to act on that
knowledge once we had it? In NZ it seems
far too easy to hide yourself away from issues which are a reality only halfway
across the world or even in our own waters...
There are evidently people in New Zealand who do care about
social and ethical issues. Do they even
visit NZ media sites anymore? Why do people have to rely on overseas media
sites such as The Guardian and the Sydney Morning Herald to cover issues like
this? Maybe the majority of them are
overseas with the ‘brain drain’?
Government
The Government have the ability to make this a pressing
issue in NZ society right now. Officially,
the NZ Government are against child labour they signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of The Child in 1990.Article 32 of the convention
addressed child labour, as follows:
" ...Parties recognise the right of
the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any
work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education,
or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or
social development."
So why wouldn’t they speak up about something
which they are supposedly opposed to? Do
governments have too much to lose if the public becomes well-informed about
supply chains, imports, taxes and the like? In 2009 the National Party and the Act Party,
still the current government, opposed an amendment to the Customs and Excise
Bill which would ban imports of slave-made products into New Zealand. Their reason for not supporting it was that
New Zealand’s existing legislation was sufficient to prevent such importation. The time to use that legislation may be at
hand. Will we see the government stand
up for the supposed ideals it aspires to in this country? Is it just too close to an election year?
The issue of International Fishing companies treating their
labourers illegally in NZ waters is already a talking point in society, why isn’t
it the fact that a NZ company has been doing the same thing offshore? This story deserves to be given more time and
attention than what is has received in NZ media so far. We are viewed around the world as a
progressive nation when it comes to respecting human rights and protecting
those who can’t speak up for themselves. Should we be taking an honest look at our
companies, our media, our government and ourselves? What more can we do to combat injustice in
the world?
So will this be the first article on the subject to be
published on a New Zealand news domain?
I sent it to Stuff.co.nz so we will have to wait and see. (Editor note: the article was published, with subtle editing which dulled down the message of the poor job the media have done. Check it out here if you want, like it or share it to friends if you want to but I feel this version is better).
If you really want to see these sorts of stories published in our media news sites I implore you to send this post to your friends and family members. The media is going to cover what the public want and the Government will act when the public voices their concern. Help by making this an issue worthy of front page news in New Zealand by spreading the news.
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Photo sourced from theage.com.au
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