Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are a few facts in this debate on the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill that I think are really important. The vast majority of employers are doing the right thing, unless of course you are a temporary migrant worker. Recently arrived migrant workers are 40 per cent more likely to be underpaid than long-term residents with the same skills or experiences. That's what a recent Grattan report said. One in six recently arrived migrant workers are paid less than the legal minimum wage. Temporary visa holders make up four per cent of the workforce but in 2021-22 made up 26 per cent of all litigation initiated for breaches of the Fair Work Act. That's what our own Fair Work Ombudsman Commission said—and they're just the ones who came forward. That's just the work that the government is doing. Let's not forget about the case of blueberry workers being paid about $3 an hour to pick blueberries because of piece rates that were ripping them off. Union after union, worker after worker, task force after task force has told this parliament and previous governments that not enough was being done to protect migrant workers.

Let's just for a moment touch base on what has happened in the past decade, if not longer. First, those opposite, in government, said there wasn't a problem, that it was a few cases. Then, as more media reports came out, they accused the workers and the unions of causing trouble. It was only after their own task force started to expose the true underbelly and extent of the problem that they finally acknowledged that there was a problem. But, rather than meet it with action, what we saw from those opposite when they were in government was just more task forces and more committees to tell us what everybody else had been telling them for so long, that we had a problem: recently arrived migrants, regardless of what visa they were brought here on, were being exploited. It happens in the Seasonal Worker Program, where it explicitly says in that program that these workers must be paid the award rates. We are seeing workers being paid less. It's not just in agriculture that we have these problems. It's happening in hospitality, in the hotel industry, in retail work and in accountancy. It's happening in a whole bunch of industries, and that is why reform is so necessary. It took the election of a Labor government for real reform and progress to be made on this issue.

The Albanese Labor government is progressing a package of reforms to tackle the exploitation of all workers, including migrant workers, and the bills that are before us right now seek to implement the key recommendation from Professor Allan Fels's Migrant Workers Taskforce report. I feel like I've stood in this parliament and spoken about this report time and time again, so I am so proud and relieved to be able to stand here and say that we finally have a bill before us that addresses and implements key recommendations from Professor Allan Fels's Migrant Workers Taskforce report. There are new criminal offences for using a person's migration status to exploit them in the workplace. This is recommendation No. 19 from the task force's report. There is a new tool to prohibit employers engaging exploitative practices to be able to hire workers on temporary visas for a period of time. This is recommendation No. 20 from the task force's report. This bill in fact goes further than the report's recommendations. There are higher penalties for those who do the wrong thing. The ABF will be receiving new compliance tools. We will repeal the part of the Migration Act that imposes a criminal penalty on workers who breach their visa conditions—effectively, criminalising them for speaking up. Can you believe it is actually a part of the Migration Act, currently, to criminalise people for speaking up about breaching their conditions when, in many cases, these workers were being forced to breach their own visa conditions?

This bill is one part of the Albanese Labor government's plan to protect workers. In the 2023-24 budget, the government provided $50 million to Australian Border Force over four years to help address and tackle the challenges that we're seeing. For the first time in a long time, the government is raising awareness about employer obligations and actually getting out and visiting the businesses in a substantive way to talk to them about their obligations. There are some employers who engaged labour hire who say they didn't know. Now they will know, and now they will have a responsibility. It became part of the business model that was supersized under the previous government: you use a labour hire company to outsource your obligations to these workers. We heard shocking stories—and, unfortunately, we continue to hear them today—about workers who get paid but then have deducted from their pay exorbitant fees for transport, accommodation and uniforms. In some cases, people had money deducted for things that they hadn't actually received. All of these methods were being used by unscrupulous employers, quite often labour hire companies, to exploit temporary migrant workers. We should thank temporary migrant workers. We are privileged to have them come to this country. We all know about the labour shortages in the industries that I have raised and others. We should be grateful and thankful that these workers choose to come to Australia to work, when they could work in so many other places, because we simply don't have the local workers to actually do the job. Yet, rather than thanking them, supporting them and paying them what they're worth, companies have exploited them.

One of the industries that has had lots of issues is the meatworks industry. We have seen labour hire companies recruit workers—international students and people who are here as backpackers—and pay them less than other workers. There is other legislation that this parliament may consider in the future which will look at the 'same job, same pay' legislation and which will look at saying that labour hire workers should be paid the same or equal rates as other workers. Whilst that addresses another loophole, what this legislation does is look at the loophole and the challenges where migrant workers are paid much less—another example of why.

The United Workers Union, which represents quite a number of farm workers, recently surveyed about a thousand workers in the lead-up to a submission that they had to the National Agricultural Workforce Strategy. Their findings reflect what we've been continually hearing for the past decade. They found that 32 per cent of workers surveyed experience dangerous and unsafe workloads. Twenty-seven per cent reported that they did not have access to toilets or efficient drinking water. They found that 32 per cent of workers were threatened by a contractor for making a complaint about wages and conditions. Sixty-three per cent of workers said that they were being underpaid. Forty-four per cent reported that they were being paid in cash. The fact that we still have workers being paid in cash demonstrates just how big the problem is.

Another survey that was undertaken by the union in 2019 found that the average hourly rate for horticultural workers that were surveyed was $14.80 before tax. That's well below the casual minimum wage and well below the full-time minimum wage. This is what is going on and this is why we need action to address it. Piece rates, subcontracting, the ridiculous rates that they're being charged for accommodation and the extra costs that are imposed on them for transport are all ways in which these migrant workers are being exploited, on our watch here in parliament.

That is why I'm so proud to be part of a government that is doing something about it, that isn't just setting up another task force blaming somebody else. Quite often what was happening under the previous government with these cases was the blaming of the very people being exploited for speaking up. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the bravery of those migrant workers, many of whom are here on temporary arrangements, for speaking up, as well as their unions—the AWU, the former NWU, now the UWU, and the SDA—for the way in which they've spoken up. It's a big thing for a worker to speak up about being exploited in the workplace. It's an even bigger thing for a migrant worker, who risks losing their visa, to speak up.

Some of the specifics in this bill are that a new criminal employer sanction will be introduced. Prohibiting employers and individuals from hiring future workers on temporary visas will be introduced. Aligning and increasing penalties for work-related breaches are part of this bill. Part 4 is enforcing an undertaking for work-related breaches. There are compliance notices for work-related breaches and a number of other amendments that will ensure that people working here on temporary visas are given a fair go and treated with respect.

It's disappointing that it's taken a Labor government for this to be enacted. Treating people with respect in the workplace should be core business for all of us. Making sure that all workers, regardless of visa status, are paid the minimum wage should be the responsibility of all of us, not just because of the election of a Labor government. It is disappointing that it has taken so long—over a decade—for there to be real action. At the same time, I'm really proud to be part of a government that is acting on behalf of temporary migrant workers who've come here to earn a decent living and to help us with some of our challenges that we have with our workforce—that it is our government that is doing the work.

I would also like to acknowledge the Migrant Workers Centre in Melbourne that's part of the Trades Hall that has long advocated for change to the awful situation that migrant workers are in, because their visa status is quite often held over them. I would also like to mention the work that the Migrant Resource Centre have done in this place, and all the other civil society and community organisations that have supported migrant workers when they find themselves in situations of horrible exploitation. This is a horrible stain that we have on Australian workplace history, and it is good to see action finally happening.

As previous speakers on this side have mentioned, not only will we tackle the exploitation of migrant workers and ensure they get paid the same as other workers; we'll also help other workers to ensure their wages and conditions are not undercut. If you have the exploitation of migrant workers as part of your business model and you are able to pay them so much less than other workers who are either Australian citizens or permanent residents, then it puts pressure on everybody. It means their labour, because it is cheaper, becomes the labour of choice, and that's what we need to avoid. I encourage all of those in this place to consider this bill and to vote for it. It is long overdue, it is action that's required, it implements key recommendations from Professor Allan Fels' Migrant Workers' Taskforce report and it is great to see it finally happening.

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