They Won't Make Shoes In P-NG

It seems that Papua-New Guinea is not to have a shoe manu facturing industry after all. A report in the South Pacific Post at the end of last year, suggested that an Australian shoe manu facturing firm was interested. manu . However, in January, in trying to track down the source of the story, was told by a spokesman for Goldberg Footwear Ltd that a visit of representatives to the Territory had been nurelv exploratory . It was, PIM was told, premature to make any other statement. (PIM, January, p. 44). y Now K. A. Webb, general manager, Goldberg International Ptv Ltd., has issued an emphatic denial of the story.

He is “at a loss to understand the item appearing in the South Pacific Post, because “we have no intention of onenine- » factory in New Guinea”. p s One reason why this decision has been taken could be that the original report was picked up by the Australian Boot Trades Employees Federation and was re-published in the Union’s magazine Unity.

The spectre of P-NG’s alleged “cheap black labour” has a habit of making chills run up and down the spines of Australian workers.