Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senators Moore and Reynolds, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 25 March, the United Nations International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade offers us an opportunity to honour and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the brutal slavery system,

(ii) the United Nations resolution 62/122 of December 2007 called for an ongoing outreach programme to mobilise educational institutions, civil society and communities across the world to ensure future generations will understand the causes and consequences and lessons of the Transatlantic slave trade and to communicate the dangers of racism and prejudice, and

(iii) the cross-party report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Hidden in Plain Sight: An inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia, tabled on 7 December 2017, provides clear evidence that slavery and trafficking still exists today, and notes the report's recommendations for action in legislation, supply chain monitoring and support for victims;

(b) notes and commends the Government on taking action against the trafficking of children into modem slavery in for-profit orphanages; and

(c) acknowledges the importance of a commitment to end the tyranny of modem slavery, learning the lessons of the horrors of the Transatlantic slave trade, and modern slavery's incompatibility with the individual rights and freedoms that underpin democracies.

Question agreed to.