Modern Day Slavery – closer to home?

Opinion Piece by Liz Gregory.

I think it’s time to state the obvious.  If it looks like Slavery, smells like Slavery, it might be Slavery.

Did you know that New Zealand has been progressing some modern day slavery legislation for quite some time? This week’s Shanti Mathais’ piece for the Spinoff (Where is New Zealand’s legislation against Modern Day Slavery) has again shone a spotlight on the slow journey of the promised legislation through Parliament, and it asks some excellent questions. The Sunday programme in May 2023 “Surviving Slavery” opened up the conversation about local forms of slavery.

But surprisingly Gloriavale was not mentioned in any of these conversations.

Perhaps it’s time to join the dots.

We know we’ve moved away from the notions of slavery being linked to boats and chains. Although let’s be honest, chains do exist in all forms of slavery and servitude – but they’re not necessarily made of steel. Chains in the mind can be just as powerful. These chains can bind the mind and isolation can bind the body.

We’re starting to understand migrant exploitation, trafficking and supply chain issues much better. Businesses are keen to be seen distancing themselves from international exploitative practices.

But it’s looking highly likely that New Zealand been harbouring and protecting a high-cost (read cult), exploitative, slave-like group on the West Coast of New Zealand.

In fact, the Government took the opportunity during the court proceedings to remind Gloriavale that they currently are under active Police investigation for Forced Labour, Servitude and Slavery…

For successive decades, agencies have overlooked the forced and exploitative labour of children in the isolated religious community, because they believed the leaders’ glossy version of what volunteering in a Christian Community looks like. In fact the workers were even conditioned to tell people they were happy volunteers. Some were happy slaves. But you can’t be a legal slave in our country.

Thankfully, the Employment Court judge, Christina Inglis, saw right through Gloriavale, and their less than truthful representations of how they tried to present their lives in court.

Judge Inglis wrote,

“I have reached the conclusion, based on the evidence before the court, that the plaintiffs did their work – which admittedly benefitted the community – because that is what they were told to do; what each of them had been trained to accept from birth; and the consequences of not doing what was expected were dire and well known – exclusion from the community, from all that was familiar, from family and friends, and into a world they know little about, were ill-equipped to navigate and had been taught to fear.”

The first proceedings were filed in September 2021 against the Attorney General representing the Labour Inspectorate (MBIE) for their failure to recognise employment, along with Gloriavale as the Second Defendants. The Boys’ case (Courage) got a win in the judgement in May 2022. Forced labour it was. The Girls’ case (Pilgrim) was filed in Feb 2022 and was heard across a 7-month period, with 2.5 months of in-court days. The judgement in July 2023 stated clearly the girls were not volunteers. They were employees, who were not afforded the protections afforded to kiwis by Section 6 of the Employment Relations Act, when they should have been. This smells very much like servitude and slavery.

The Girls’ win in court recently has pushed this conversation into the international spotlight. The issue got a mention in the United Nations Convention on Torture last week.

As Brian Henry said (lawyer for the Gloriavale Leavers), this problem has been “sitting under the noses of the bureaucratic establishments for decades.”

The failure of the Government should be a huge concern for all of us. We should be able to rely on Government for the right and proper administration of the law.

I echo all calls for this legislation to be moved through to the next stage, but not before provisions are put in place for the local issues we face.

Many people are wondering why the Government has been so slow at moving the legislation through Parliament. A fleeting thought I had is that perhaps they were awaiting the outcome of the Gloriavale Employment Court proceedings? Suing the Government was one sure-fire way for the Gloriavale issue to be taken seriously. Perhaps they have finally realised that any new legislation needs to not just focus on exploitation in supply lines from overseas companies, but look first in our own backwards?

It’s been 11 days since the judgment and from what I’ve heard the young girls are still making the 11,000 meals and washing the 17,000 clothing items required to keep the community ticking over. I’m  not sure when the Labour Inspectorate will enforce the ruling, but Gloriavale is happy to go on an usual until then. As preached in their Sunday sermon last week, this is a Red Sea experience. God will make a way through for us. He will part the Red Sea. This is persecution. Don’t go and find your own boat….

My advice to the lawmakers would be “do it once and do it right.” But please do it right.

Disclaimer: All opinions are those held by Liz Gregory, at the time of writing.