Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the amendment moved by the member for Hotham. The amendment has been moved because what the government is proposing with the Modern Slavery Bill 2018 doesn't go far enough and, unfortunately, ignores the recommendations of several inquiries, particularly around the appointment of an independent commissioner to look at these issues. Quite simply, slavery is shocking. That we as a nation aren't doing all we can to prevent slavery is saddening. As a country and as a parliament we must do more to prevent slavery, servitude, forced labour, deceptive recruiting, trafficking in persons, debt bondage, forced marriage and organ trafficking. Forced labour is barred everywhere in the world, yet tens of millions are subject to this appalling practice. The vast majority of modern slaves are working in factories, on construction sites, on fishing boats and in agricultural industries across the world. It's estimated that a quarter of such exploitation is happening outside of a victim's country of origin.

Australia is not immune to the scourge of slavery. The Global Slavery Index estimates that up to 15,000 people are struggling in conditions of modern slavery here in Australia. This includes forced labour, sexual exploitation of adults and children, and forced marriages. It's quite shocking and saddening. To most Australians it would be unbelievable that these sorts of things still occur in modern society, but there's no emotion involved for those who commit these most heinous of human rights abuses. Slavery is underpinned by a simple business model: reduce the cost of labour to something close to zero and reap the benefits of that toil. Slavers enjoy these fruits despite the bitterness of terror and tears. Both violence and threats of deception are the business strategy of the cold, calculating slaver. Psychological abuse, coercion and mental manipulation play a significant role in the recruitment and control of modern-day slaves, particularly in relationships where there is an imbalance of power between the slavers and those being exploited. Perpetrators often live and work with their victims, watching and managing their movements, taking them to work and collecting them. Victims of slavery don't travel alone. Their identity papers and passports are often taken away when they enter the country in which these actions take place.

Our fellow humans are forced by people into work they would not otherwise do, yet modern slavery's business model goes beyond the simple reduction of labour costs. Researchers at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom have highlighted that modern slavers are also deriving revenue from the sale of additional goods and services to workers under their control. This is the 'slaves as consumers' aspect of modern slavery. This can include accommodation, food and transport provided at monopoly prices to workers with no other choices. It's all upside for those doing the exploiting, but for the workers it's a continued spiral into deeper debt. This too can provide more opportunity for the slavers to turn the screws. In order to service the debt, workers may then secure funds from family members abroad or instant loan services which enable their exploiters to generate additional revenue. This business model of despair encourages slavers to deliberately take on more workers than they need for the work they expect to get done. This is the ugly face of the 'growth despite the costs' mantra.

It is also a reflection of the constant innovation in the business models of those doing the exploitation. That's why we talk of modern-day slavery. It is because of the innovative aspects of what's being done and the techniques that are being used to exploit people. But whether it was back in the 18th century or is in the modern 21st century, the principle is still the same—that is, the shocking and horrible abuse of human rights and exploitation of people for economic advantage. That may help to explain why there are more people trapped in slavery in the world today than there have been at any other point in modern history.

The slavers are also increasingly using social media, particularly to recruit migrant labourers. They use platforms such as Facebook to promise unrealistically high pay and share only a very general description of the work involved, and, of course, there's very little information on workers' rights, recruitment fees or deceptive recruitment. The challenge is that it can be difficult to identify exploitative recruitment online. Detailed conversations with dodgy employers are usually taking place in private and illegal activity often happens alongside what seems like and constitutes legal behaviour. The slavers often use aggressive, credible threats to create anxiety, despair and humiliation to ensure compliant behaviour. This non-physical type of control means that modern slavery is easy to conceal. It's harder to see. It's encouraging to see that some of organisations, like Facebook, are working with the United Nations and grassroots organisations to raise awareness of human smuggling, trafficking and forced labour.

It is clear that businesses here in Australia can also play a major role in either facilitating modern day slavery or helping to eradicate it. Companies can be culpable by driving down supplier prices or demanding ever-quicker production. These actions can play a big role in pushing suppliers to pursue cheap labour solutions and illicit subcontracting. A supply chain shouldn't be based on workers shackled in chains. Slavery is indeed a weak link in corporate supply chains. Forced labour was once a niche human rights matter for many large companies but today it needs to be at the forefront of corporate concerns.

One year ago, Labor committed to modern slavery legislation with penalties and, importantly, an independent anti-slavery commissioner. Our announcement was warmly greeted by business, civil society and unions and we're deeply disappointed that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments have put forward a modern slavery bill without those penalties and have chosen to have a business engagement unit instead of an independent anti-slavery commissioner. The absence of penalties in this bill is also quite baffling. We cannot leave it to big business to police themselves on slavery. There have to be penalties for the serious breaches of human rights that we have seen constituting modern slavery. We can't leave it to big business simply to police themselves on this one. Evidence provided to the Senate inquiry into this bill showed that in the United Kingdom, where there is a similar regime without penalties, the percentage of businesses that have reported still hovers at around 30 per cent of those that supposedly have an obligation to do so.

Civil society groups have also argued the need for penalties for companies that breach the Modern Slavery Act. The overwhelming majority of stakeholders who gave evidence to the Senate inquiry put in their submissions that this was a necessary must-have in any legislation when it came to modern slavery legislation. Those organisations include the Human Rights Law Centre, the Law Council of Australia and Oxfam. They've all called for penalties to be included in this bill. That's why Labor, despite supporting this bill, will continue our fight to ensure that we get a decent set of provisions that do provide an active deterrent to slavery in this country and, importantly, provide deterrent penalties for those who breach their human rights obligations and who undertake slavery in the modern context. I don't think there would be one Australian who would believe that it would be acceptable to exploit people and abuse their human rights in this manner. If that is the case, then there should be stiff penalties for those who do and there should be an independent body, in the form of an independent anti-slavery commissioner, that has oversight and makes sure that the laws and penalties are enforced.

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