Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023. Our American friends have a country that was conceived with a compromise between the southern and northern states with inbuilt, inherent slavery continuing on. It took until the 13th amendment in 1865 to vanquish the south. The brilliant US President Abraham Lincoln, with the support of Union generals Ulysses S Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, eventually persuaded enough politicians and states to pass the 13th amendment.

We in Australia understood early that slavery needed to be abolished. We had picked up the common law from the United Kingdom. Agitation took place from the 1750s onwards in the United Kingdom to abolish slavery. Eventually, in 1807, the slave trade was abolished by legislation passed by the UK parliament. We picked that up when New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, as Tasmania was then called, had legislation that was passed in the Australian Courts Act 1828. That meant that abolition of the slave trade was part of Australian law. Credit to William Wilberforce, a conservative UK politician, and others who eventually saw the abolition of slavery in the UK and obviously then in Australia in 1833.

In the same way that our understanding of domestic and family violence is not just assault and sexual assault—we understand that domestic and family violence is much broader in its understanding, encompassing everything from familial isolation to financial domination and coercive control—we understand also that slavery is more than human trafficking and physical enslavement to work in a workplace. We understand that it can involve deceptive recruiting, debt bondage, forced labour and forced marriage. Modern slavery takes many, many forms. These are insidious and abhorrent crimes and abuses of power that simply have no place in a modern, multicultural, liberal, democratic country like Australia.

In a particularly egregious in my home state of Queensland recently a 47-year-old man was charged with 46 offences involving assault, torture and enslavement of deckhands on his fishing boat in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The accused allegedly intimidated and attacked his young employees and withheld food and water as well as wages. In fact, police have alleged that some of the complainants were in such fear for their lives that they actually jumped off boats and swam through crocodile and shark infested waters to escape being tortured. Sadly, we know modern slavery includes alleged cases like this one. They have become more prevalent both here and overseas. In fact, the Australian government estimates that at least 1,900 modern slavery victims currently exist in Australia, and that's a shocking statistic.

This type of crime is complex, ever evolving and hidden in large part. International conflicts, poverty and climate change have assisted perpetrators to seek to seriously exploit others for their benefit. Online interconnectedness brings increased opportunities to detect and disrupt perpetrators also bringing this crime right to our doorstep. To stop modern slavery, we need engagement and partnership. Combating modern slavery is a challenge that requires steadfastness and collaboration. I'm proud of the role Australia and the Albanese Labor government have played in preventing and disrupting this evil—a fact recently recognised by Australia maintaining its tier 1 ranking in the United States government's 2023 Trafficking in personsreport. Make no mistake, our government is committed to bolstering efforts to tackle this appalling abuse of human rights. To that end, the government's tackling modern slavery package contains a number of key sets of commitments.

The first step is to strengthen the actual legislation and establish an antislavery commissioner. This bill before parliament gives effect to that commitment we made at the last election and amends the act accordingly. Australia will have its first Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner as an independent statutory office holder in the Attorney-General Department's portfolio. This is a landmark reform that delivers on our election commitment, a new independent pillar and part of a comprehensive approach. The core functions of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner will include engaging and supporting victims and survivors of modern slavery and supporting businesses to address the risk of modern slavery practices in their operation and supply chains.

The commissioner's role and functions will complement work undertaken across government, business and civil society to respond. The commissioner will play a key role in helping to shape implementation of reforms in this area, including those which arise from the recent statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act, which the government is currently considering. That review was led by Professor John McMillan and considered the first three years of the act's operation. It also examined the potential role of the independent commissioner. A number of the review's recommendations were in line with key election commitments in the Tackling Modern Slavery Package, including the need for penalties for noncompliance with the act.

When the previous government put this legislation through, which we supported because we needed to take steps, we thought that it was not tough enough or strong enough. It had flaws. So we are really keen to make sure that that legislation is better, and part of this legislation today is part of our election commitment to do so. This core commitment supports our ambitious agenda to address this insidious scourge.

The commissioner's functions will allow the commissioner to work with victims-survivors in compliance with the legislation; that's absolutely crucial. Having that commissioner in place will assist with implementation of other recommendations and will really be a moral force for good in our society. We view the commissioner as playing a key role in leading the change across government, business and society generally—a national figurehead in Australia's fight against modern slavery. We've committed $8 million over four years to support the commission's establishment and operation. We're confident it will complement and enhance existing initiatives and functions.

We called for the commissioner to be established when the legislation was first passed, when we were in opposition. It fell on the deaf ears of those opposite, but we're glad that they've had a Damascus-road conversion on this and they're now going to support us. We weren't alone in asking for that. We acknowledge those stakeholders—civil, business and academic—who have long campaigned for an independent commissioner to raise awareness of modern slavery in Australia, to provide independent information and support to victims and survivors, to target those businesses that might be involved and to identify and address supply chain issues.

The parliament also supported the idea recently with the 2017 report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade—a committee which I now chair—Hidden in plain sight, and the 2017 report of the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, An inquiry into human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices. Both inquiries explored and made recommendations for Australian modern slavery laws that would establish an independent commissioner. So this has a long history, and Labor has strongly been on the side of supporting an independent commissioner.

There's always more work we can do to help victims and survivors. We can do more to ensure businesses are able to identify and address modern slavery risks in their supply chains. There are good businesses that find these things happening in their supply chains, much to their horror. We can do more to support civil society organisations to hold those perpetrators to account; it's critical that they are taken before the courts of law.

On top of establishing this commissioner, we're working to eliminate the scourge of modern slavery through a range of activities at home and abroad. We have appointed 20 members to the Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group to advise the government. The group advises on the operation of the act and on the practical implementation of measures to strengthen the legislation that the government is considering following the review, which I mentioned earlier. The individuals and organisations appointed bring a diversity of skills. They come from business, civil society, unions and academia.

In addition, in December last year the government hosted the 15th National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery and announced a $12.1 million funding commitment over five years for the new Forced Marriage Specialist Support Program—and haven't we had enough reviews and examinations of that issue! There's $2.2 million in further funding to extend the Speak Now project. These reviews that I have referred to indicate quite clearly that forced marriages are a scourge and a real problem in our society.

The Forced Marriage Specialist Support Program will provide individualised, needs based prevention and early intervention support for those experiencing or at risk of experiencing forced marriage. It will also provide essential access to counselling and emergency accommodation where required. The Speak Now project, delivered by Anti-Slavery Australia, aims to prevent forced marriage through education, awareness raising and collaboration with the sector. One of the most important tasks of our Tackling Modern Slavery Package is ensuring people who've experienced modern slavery can get the support they need. That's why we committed $24.3 million in funding for the support for trafficked people program in the last budget.

Under the program, the additional funding will be used to increase the minimum length of time for support to 90 days, ensuring equitable financial support for visa holders as well as providing follow-ups after a client has left the program—that's really critical. A pilot program of up to 18 months will also commence this year to allow direct referrals to the program by community providers in response to advocates calls for trial, an additional referral pathway. So we're creating a new pathway. In June last year, the Attorney-General announced 13 recipients of the modern slavery grants round 2 package under the National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery 2020-25. The government is providing $2.73 million over two years to develop community and research projects to raise awareness of the issues and help people's responses.

Also last year, the government lodged Australia's ratification of the Minimum Age Convention No. 138 with the Director-General of the International Labor Organization. I also referred earlier to what we're doing internationally. This represents a significant step towards protection of children's rights in combating modern slavery by setting out a minimum age for young people to start employment, so they can work safely without any interference with their education.

In March last year the Attorney-General commemorated with the national roundtable members the 10th anniversary of the legislation that inserted forced marriage, forced labour and organ traffic offences into the Criminal Code Act 1995. We're now reviewing these offences to ensure Australia's criminal justice frameworks are fit for purpose in a changing world.

In June, the government received findings from the targeted review of the modern slavery offences in the Criminal Code conducted by the Attorney-General's Department in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Director of Public Prosecutions. We've been looking at these findings closely to inform any future necessary action to strengthen the criminal justice response to modern slavery, and I want to thank stakeholders for their contributions to that public consultation process.

We're also looking to bolster our international response to combating modern slavery. In February last year the Attorney-General, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Home Affairs attended the Eighth Bali Process Ministerial Conference on people smuggling, trafficking and person related transnational crime. The good engagement we've had with the Bali process member countries is a further example of our region's commitment to working together and collaborating on these issues. This marks 20 years of partnership in combating trafficking between Australia and ASEAN.

Australia is working with ASEAN partners to make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable people in our region. Over 10,000 government officials have been trained to better identify, protect and support victims of trafficking and their families across the whole region. Since 2003, Australia has provided $160 million in development assistance to ASEAN countries to strengthen criminal justice responses and improve victim protection and support. They're just some of the examples of the significant work we're doing internationally. I want to pay tribute to the surviving advocates and say how impressed I've been by their passion and how their voices are heard.

The pilot Survivor Advisory Council, established by the Salvation Army as part of the National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery grants program, is one of the many ways the government is acknowledging, empowering and incorporating survivor voices into policy programs and legislation. This program is providing the development of Australia's first modern slavery victim and survivor engagement and empowerment strategy to work together to tackle this problem. This is timely given the theme of last year's World Day Against Trafficking in Persons—'Reach every victim of trafficking, leave no-one behind'.

Early last year, the Attorney-General's Department portfolio agencies, the New South Wales Anti-Slavery Commissioner and civil society partners discussed trauma-informed practices to support survivors of modern slavery through that criminal justice journey, a forum hosted by the Australian Institute of Criminology. There is much more we can do.

This bill builds on our election commitments, on the outstanding work of victims and survivors, civil society and industry stakeholders who advocate for this important reform. We're pleased to fulfil our election commitment. We're glad those opposite have finally seen sense. I commend the bill to the House.

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