Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Labor will be supporting the government's amendments because they improve the Modern Slavery Bill. We should not be leaving it to big business to police themselves on slavery. We're impressed by the genuine passion in the business community, and in the broader Australian community, to fight slavery. We all have a shared commitment to stamping out this practice. But we are worried some companies will not comply with the bill in its current form. The overwhelming majority of stakeholders who gave evidence to the Senate committee, including the Human Rights Law Centre, the Law Council of Australia and Oxfam, called for penalties to be included in the bill. The government's decision to leave penalties out of the bill was profoundly disappointing.

This amendment provides that the minister can request an explanation from an entity that has failed to comply with its reporting requirement. If that entity doesn't explain, then the minister can publish the identity of that entity. This is better than no response, but it is far, far weaker than the Labor proposed penalty regime. The government is also proposing to introduce the requirement for the minister to report annually about the operation of the act. This is not as strong as Labor's proposed report by the minister, but it is an improvement on the original bill, so the opposition will also support this amendment. We are also supporting the introduction of the three-year review.

Question agreed to.

by leave—I move opposition amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 8549 together:

(1) Clause 4, page 4 (line 15), after "Criminal Code", insert ", other than an offence against section 270.7B of the Criminal Code (forced marriage offences)".

(2) Clause 4, page 4 (line 17), after "Divisions", insert "(other than an offence against section 270.7B)".

These amendments would remove forced marriage from the reporting requirements which would be established by this bill. The reason we are doing this is that Labor is very concerned that the inclusion of forced marriage in this bill will have unintended consequences, including driving forced marriage further underground. The Salvation Army, in its submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry into this bill, said:

There is risk that requiring entities to assess risk of this practice may lead to unintended negative consequences, including racial and/or religious profiling of some staff.

Similarly, Good Shepherd, in its submission to the same inquiry, said:

There is a likelihood that the reporting requirement may function as a barrier to prevention.

We know that hundreds, and potentially thousands, of young Australians are at risk of forced marriage each year. Instead of driving this practice further underground, we should be supporting victims and vulnerable people at risk of forced marriage. Earlier this year Labor announced that a Shorten Labor government, if elected, would completely overhaul our response to forced marriage. Labor, if elected, has committed to establishing a forced marriage unit to provide a one-stop shop to connect victims to the support they need. We have also committed to increasing funding for civil society to support victims. Crucially, it would involve the full removal of the cooperation requirement, which requires victims to assist in the prosecution, often of their parents, in order to access government funded support. If the government are serious about addressing this issue, they should support these amendments and match Labor's forced marriage policy.