Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I wish to discuss the government response to the Joint Standing Committee on the Australian Crime Commission report on the trafficking of women for sexual servitude. I appreciate that on other occasions we get later opportunities to speak to these responses, but, firstly, because it is not always certain at this time of year that the Senate does get that chance on subsequent Thursdays and, secondly, because of the importance of the topic, I thought it was appropriate to take note of the tabling of the government response as an indication from the Senate of the significance we attach to the issue and to the fact that the government has responded.

The first comment I have to make about the government response is that the report on this most important of issues, trafficking of women for sexual servitude, was actually initially tabled in June 2004. To wait nearly 2½ years for the government to respond is a reflection of the lack of respect the government has for the parliamentary process, for the committee process—and this is a parliamentary joint committee, I might emphasise, not a Senate committee—and also for the importance of the issue. I have made this point a number of times before, but I think it needs to be made again and again. Hopefully, one day the government or those ministers who are the biggest offenders will actually take the point on board. It is not just a matter of being disrespectful to the Senate or to the parliament in taking so long to respond to recommendations in reports; I would suggest it is disrespectful to the people in the community who make the effort to contribute to inquiries.

I was not a member of this committee at the time that it brought down this report. I think my colleague former Democrat senator Brian Greig was a member, and during his time in this place he certainly put a great deal of focus and attention on the issue of trafficking—not just the trafficking of women for sexual servitude but trafficking more broadly, though clearly the trafficking of women for sexual servitude is a key part of the trafficking problem. I know this is an issue that people in the community are working on and continue to work on, and I just think it reflects badly on the government all around for us to wait nearly 2½ years before its response comes down.