Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have spoken already of the disgrace of modern slavery and how it is, sadly, still happening today. I welcome the Modern Slavery Bill 2018, although I do have some concerns that it still has some deficiencies. I note the shadow minister for justice, the member for Hotham, has moved some amendments to correct those deficiencies. I support those amendments.

Although modern slavery takes many shapes, one form relies on us as consumers to continue its business model. This is the modern slavery that occurs in the supply chain of the goods that we buy. In almost everything we purchase—the food we eat, the clothes we wear, our household items and building materials—modern slavery may be present in those supply chains. It is almost impossible for us, as consumers, to know it is present. Anti-Slavery Australia told the inquiry into establishing a modern slavery act that:

It is difficult to estimate the extent of practices of human trafficking and slavery in global supply chains. This is due to the clandestine nature of human trafficking and slavery, combined with the lack of transparency regarding supply chains at both the Australian and international level.

It is often very difficult to determine just where a product was produced and exactly how an element of a product has been made. For example, Ms Kate Nicholl, an independent supply chain consultant and lecturer at the University of Melbourne, gave the inquiry the example of a shirt made in Bangladesh that is sold by an Australian retailer:

The back of this shirt will say 'made in Bangladesh' but what that actually means is that this shirt was assembled in Bangladesh. The fabric, the cotton, the dye, if there is a zip in it, if there is a button in it—all of those materials that go into assembling that product in Bangladesh can be sourced from elsewhere, of which there is largely not a lot of transparency. It can be up to three tiers or four tiers in a supply chain, and that is where the workers are vulnerable to exploitation.

This bill will establish a modern slavery reporting requirement. It will require certain large businesses and other entities in Australia to make annual modern slavery statements to the responsible minister. The bill provides for mandatory reporting for Australian entities that have annual revenue of $100 million or more. Entities with lower annual revenue will not be compelled to make the statements but may do so voluntarily, and concerned consumers should consider asking them to so do. Many stakeholders have expressed concern that the threshold for mandatory reporting is too high and that entities with lower annual revenue should be compelled to make annual reports.

One of the deficiencies in this bill, which particularly troubles me, is the lack of any penalties for noncompliance with the act. A mandatory scheme with no penalty regime is like a tiger without teeth: it would soon starve to death. Why would a company report if there were no penalties for not reporting? There are some costs associated with reporting, so if your competitor chooses not to report, why would you? This is why Labor has moved an amendment to the bill to include penalties in the act. We cannot leave big business to police themselves. That has been made abundantly clear in evidence emerging from the banking royal commission, an inquiry that Prime Minister Morrison voted against 26 times and that he called a 'populist whinge'.

In the United Kingdom, where there are no penalties attached to reporting, only around 30 per cent of businesses who are supposed to be reporting actually report. That is fewer than one in three. That is not good enough. I would have hoped that our government would have learnt from that lesson from the United Kingdom and made sure that our modern slavery act actually had some teeth. Modern slavery in the supply chain is not something that is going to disappear overnight. It is going to take perseverance and a consistently strong response to those that continue to allow it to happen.

Australia is a trading nation. Our economic growth is underpinned by our ability to sell our goods and services overseas and to buy from the rest of the world too. It is important that we nurture our relationships with our trading partners, if for no other reason than for our own economic prosperity. But there is a secondary and equally important reason for nurturing these trading relationships: by promoting open and transparent relationships between our trading partners, we are better able to monitor and influence the transition to ethical supply chains in those countries. For example, the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, debated today, between the 11 signatory countries provides an opportunity to engage with our trading partners in a forum that is mutually advantageous. There are many clauses in the TPP that I would personally not have supported. However, if handled well, it should allow trust to develop between Australia and our trading partners.

Australia has just signed a trade agreement with Indonesia. The previous Labor government launched negotiations with Indonesia in 2012 because we recognise that our trading relationship with Indonesia has been extremely limited. Indonesia is the fourth-largest country in the world by population, and by 2050 it's projected to be the world's fourth-largest economy. It is one of our nearest geographical neighbours, yet it is currently our 13th-largest trading partner. Trade between Indonesia and Australia has actually gone backwards over the past five years. Tragically, other ties have followed suit. There are now fewer Australians speaking Bahasa than in the 1970s, and that is a disgrace. The contrast between two of our near neighbours could not be greater. More than 18,000 Australians export to New Zealand, and only about 2,000 export to Indonesia—one country, about five million people, and the other country, Indonesia, about 270 million. As one of our closest next-door neighbours, Indonesia barely gets a glance over the fence.

This does not bode well for building an open and transparent relationship. When it comes to making sure that our supply chains are free from modern slavery, such relationships are critically important. Ensuring that Australia has mutually beneficial trading relationships is crucial. Labor is conscious of the importance of these relationships. A Shorten Labor government, should it be elected, has committed to boosting transparency and analyses of trade agreements by improving the process of negotiation right from the start. A Shorten Labor government would also introduce laws that prohibit governments from signing trade agreements that waive labour market testing. That is important in the context of this bill to prevent modern slavery. The Liberals have eroded Australia's trust in trade by signing trade agreements that allow companies to bring in foreign workers without first checking whether there's an Australian who can do that job. Sadly, the Liberals have let labour market testing requirements be waived. Where there is already an Australian worker willing and able to do the job, there is no need to bring in workers from other countries—unless, obviously, an unscrupulous employer is intending to exploit the foreign worker and thus undermine local wages and conditions.

Sadly, migrants are most at risk of experiencing forms of modern slavery in Australia. In recent years authorities have discovered that men and women who have been trafficked here have been exploited in areas of work such as domestic work, hospitality, and agriculture and construction industries as well as in the sex industry. Submissions to the inquiry into establishing a modern slavery act in Australia last year gave evidence of cases of modern slavery in areas including migrant workers in the agricultural construction and meat processing industries, backpackers in the agricultural industry, a domestic worker trafficked by a foreign diplomat, and private domestic workers. Limiting the ability to bring workers to Australia to those who can work in industries where there are not enough Australian workers able to fill those vacancies will go at least some way to eliminating this form of exploitation.

As I've said, I support this bill. It is more than time that we eradicated modern slavery everywhere we can. I spoke recently in this House about gender inequality. Modern slavery impacts on many more women than men. In 2014 over 70 per cent of the 17,752 victims of human trafficking were women or girls; 54 per cent of those victims suffered sexual exploitation. Australia is primarily a destination country for human trafficking. Women from Asia are trafficked here to be put to work in the sex work industry, amongst others. I have met with the Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans on many occasions here in Parliament House, and I greatly admire the work ACRATH does. In the past 12 months alone they have assisted 28 trafficked women through their companionship program. Victims of modern slavery are often incredibly vulnerable and face cultural, social, economic and language barriers. Organisations including ACRATH have joined Labor in calling for the establishment of an independent antislavery commissioner.

Anti Slavery Australia has also recommended that the bill include the establishment of an independent antislavery commissioner. They say that the commissioner should monitor, oversee and coordinate Australia's response to human trafficking and slavery; raise awareness and provide education and guidance on human trafficking and slavery; conduct inquiries of systemic abuses in Australia; and receive and investigate complaints from individuals and organisations that have a sufficient interest. Labor again, as we did earlier in the year, call on the government to establish an independent antislavery commissioner to assist victims. The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government instead set up a business engagement unit to assist big business, when their resources would be much more efficient helping the victims of slavery. Labor continues to call on the Morrison government to establish an office of an independent antislavery commissioner to help victims of modern slavery and stamp out this sickening crime. With that I welcome this bill.

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