Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Everyone deserves to feel safe and be treated with respect at work. It's a basic principle. It's a right we all deserve no matter who we are or where we come from. Being able to speak up at work without fear is also essential. If you aren't being paid correctly—for example, a correct wage—or if you're experiencing unfair working conditions, you've got to have the right to speak up and make that be known. Having protections in place to support people speaking out is critical. It enables accountability and fairness.

Unfortunately some of the most vulnerable members of our community have struggled to feel safe at work. That's just an unfortunate fact of the past decade in particular. Many are exploited by employers who feel it is acceptable to take advantage of those, for example, on temporary work visas. We're talking about a significant group of people in Australia on temporary work visas. Last year 137,090 temporary work visas were granted, adding to the estimated number of more than 1.6 million temporary migrants already living in Australia. Many of them are underpaid, harassed, bullied and unsafe at work. Unsafe conditions impact this group disproportionately. Whilst we hear their stories, many people don't know how to report incidents. They experience language barriers, for example, or are afraid to lose their job or their visa, and they sadly continue to be exploited as incidents are very under-reported.

The issue is significant. Whilst people on temporary work visas only make up four per cent of their workforce, and 2021-22, the same group of people made up 26 per cent of all litigation initiated for breaching the Fair Work Act—and, as I said, most of the incidents are unreported, so that is a stark statistic. The Grattan Institute report titled Short-changed also outlined just how bad the situation is. They found that as many as one in six migrant workers in Australia is paid less than the national minimum wage. That same group of migrant workers is also more likely to miss out on superannuation, overtime and paid leave. Many also face unsafe workplaces and sexual harassment. Recent migrants are also 40 per cent more likely to be underpaid compared to long-term residents who have the same skills and experience and who work in the same job.

This exploitation not only hurts the individual and those around them but also ultimately drives down wages and worsens conditions in the workplace for all Australians. Unfortunately many people choose not to speak out on the mistreatment they experience due to fears that their visa will be cancelled or they will lose their pathway to permanent residency. I will give one example; a fellow by the name of Amir Bagheri-gol-roud-badi. He's an Iranian refugee on a temporary work visas. Amir is his 50s and has worked pretty hard within the construction and building industry. Amir told my office that he worked for his employer for an entire year—in a very physically demanding role, as you can imagine in construction—yet was not paid his wages at all. He was underpaid completely. It is absolutely shocking the way that he was exploited. His employer refused to pay him the wages that he was entitled to. They told him, 'You can complain if you want,' and warned him that no-one would listen to him, given he was a refugee on a temporary visa.

Amir was also exposed to unsafe working conditions. In fact, given that there were very limited safety measures in place, he actually experienced a permanent work injury. He was too scared to speak out in case his visa would be cancelled or he would be deported. By the time he found the courage to speak out, it was too late. Amir hadn't sought the relevant documentation or evidence to support his case, so he was told he had no options to fight this, all because he was too scared to speak out and make a complaint earlier. The current system failed to protect Amir. He was too scared. The Albanese Labor government is committed to addressing this type of exploitation and many other forms of exploitation.

These reforms are just one way that the Albanese government plans to protect workers. As part of these reforms, we'll directly implement key recommendations made by Professor Allan Fels in the Migrant Workers Taskforce report. This includes new criminal offences for using a person's migration status to exploit them in the workplace—recommendation 19 from the task force. There's also a new tool to stop employers engaged in exploitative practices being able to hire workers on temporary visas for a period of time—recommendation 20 from the task force. This bill also goes further, and provides high penalties for those who do the wrong thing. The government will also repeal the part of the Migration Act that makes it a criminal penalty for workers to breach their visa conditions, which has effectively criminalised speaking up. We want to encourage workers to speak up and report exploitation, and we'll do this by putting in appropriate protections from visa cancellations when this happens.

The government has also provided $50 million to the Australian Border Force as part of the 2023-24 budget to be used over four years. The ABF targeted employers who were suspected of wrongdoing. These reforms will give the ABF new compliance tools. As part of this work, the Albanese government is working with industry, union and civil society through a co-design process to help design further safeguards within the visa system. Put simply, the government is committed to making it safer for people to speak up when they are being exploited in the workplace.

There is a lot of detail in this bill from paragraph 245AA of the Migration Act. There will be new criminal and civil offences being introduced in cases where people are coerced to work in breach of their visa conditions or are using their visa status to exploit workers. That penalty will be up to two years in prison or 360 penalty units. It will be important to deter employers and prevent the exploitation of workers due to their visa conditions. At the moment, there are no ways to prevent employers who have been sanctioned under the Migration Act from hiring international students or backpackers, despite the vulnerability these workers face.

In paragraph 245AYA of the Migration Act there will be new prohibition notices that will enable the minister or a delegate to declare employers and individuals as being prohibited from hiring workers on temporary visas for a period of time. The triggers for such prohibitions will include court orders and noncompliance with employment and migration law. The government wants to ensure that the employment law and migration law work collaboratively and towards the same goals. When this situation occurs, the minister must publish relevant details on the department website. Ultimately, these changes mean that employers will not be able to hire any temporary visa holders where they have exploited workers in the past.

There will be stricter enforcement of breaches for those involved in wrongdoing, and penalties for work based breaches will align with the maximum available penalty under the Migration Act. Also under the Migration Act there will be work related offences and provisions made subject to enforceable undertakings, providing the Australian Border Force with additional tools to help them in their enforcement efforts. There will be a notice that formally advises an employer who breaches relevant Migration Act and migration regulation rules and provide the ABF with more tools to assist in their enforcement of that. Under section 116(1A) of the Migration Act, exploiting a worker can be considered as a potential mitigating factor when visa cancellation is under consideration. This will help encourage migrants on temporary visas to speak up if they're being exploited. It puts protections in place and sends a message that their visa will not be cancelled in these cases.

Over the past 10 years our migration system in this country has relied on a large number of low-paid, exploited temporary migrant workers. We know they've been routinely exploited; the evidence is there for all of us to see. Over the past 10 years the former government, the coalition government, did nothing about this. It's I think a familiar pattern to all of us: they did absolutely nothing about this.

The former coalition government also failed to implement the key recommendations of the Migrant Workers' Taskforce. That task force reported to the Morrison government back in 2019, but it was never actioned. That's not a surprise. The former government became aware of the atrocious exploitation of temporary workers particularly through the 7-Eleven case in 2016, a situation that saw workers paid as little as $10 an hour, with franchise owners commonly paying workers for half their hours and forcing staff to hand back much of their pay in cash. Many of these individuals were international students. This situation led to 7-Eleven franchise employees being paid $173 million in underpaid wages, interest and superannuation to compensate them. The former government found out about this but did not feel compelled to take action. Instead, they preferred temporary visas to permanent visas, making it easier for employers to exploit vulnerable members of our community.

This is the crux of this. The Morrison government did a big smoke-and-mirrors play. The former prime minister went on about how he was going to do congestion busting in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but particularly Sydney and Melbourne. He said, 'I'm going to reduce the migration numbers.' He reduced permanent skilled migration by about 10,000, and he upped temporary work visas. It was all smoke and mirrors. And I think it's very important to note for the House that while temporary work visas are an important part of the migration system—there are gaps in various industries and sectors that need to be filled—they cannot be the only way that people come in on work visas. It goes against the whole set-up whereby, particularly in the post World War II period, Australia's migration system and Australia benefited, frankly, from having millions of people migrating to this country to settle here permanently on skilled visas and to work here and become Australians—like my parents who came here and worked hard and became Australians. They settled here and built a life and built a home, for themselves and for their children and their grandchildren. That's what we want to see more of, because it's that connection to Australia and becoming Australian.

So, as I said, while there is a place for temporary work visas, they can't be the replacement for that skilled and permanent migration that has built this country into what it is today. That's exactly what the previous government did. They played a game by increasing the number of temporary work visas. They knew exploitation was happening. They did nothing about it. Then they claimed they were reducing congestion—and bashed migrants at the same time. It's deeply cynical, deeply 'do nothing'—typical of the previous Morrison government.

We know we have to protect temporary visa holders. We got a glimpse of labour shortages in the absence of temporary visa holders during the pandemic. As I said, we understand the value of temporary migrant workers and the rich contribution they make to our economy. But we have to make sure we protect these workers, that the protections are in place, because it is the right thing to do. I also acknowledge that without these protections the exploitation of these temporary workers will ultimately discourage this type of migration and lead us to experience more long-term net loss in economic terms.

The Albanese government is putting a stop to this exploitation. That is what this bill is about. Members opposite can huff and puff, roll their eyes and do all sorts of things, but they know the truth of this. They know we are taking steps to ensure that no-one who comes to Australia is exploited or abused. You cannot deny that principle; you cannot deny that objective. We're taking the relevant steps to ensure that people like Amir no longer fear speaking out when they are clearly being exploited—not being paid the wages that they earn—or are experiencing unsafe working conditions. These are basic principles for workers and for Australians. We're making these changes because people in this country deserve to be paid fairly and treated respectfully. That's what this bill is about. Exploiting workers is never okay. It's never acceptable. It doesn't matter what that person's migration status is. Whether they are an Australian, a permanent resident or on a temporary work visa, it is not acceptable. That's the standard we should be setting as a nation. This government is committed to protecting all the workers in Australia.

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