Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Eight. Thank you very much, Senator. They also have paid more than $423 million to Paladin, a company first based out of a beach shack in Kangaroo Island that later went on to be fined some 3,700 times in a 12-month period for failing to meet minimum service standards. How did Paladin get this contract? We really don't know, because there was no competitive tender. There was no maths, obviously, involved. The government simply just threw a whole lot of money to this company that was registered to a beach shack and said, 'Go ahead'—$20 million a month.

By the way, Paladin are so bad at doing their job. They were supposed to be providing security to Manus Island. Apparently they were not very good at it, because we know from other information provided to the Senate that the Department of Home Affairs officials were too scared to visit Manus Island, because they felt it was not secure. So there you go, $20 million a month of Australians' money and not getting the job done.

There is possibly no greater example, though, of 'set and forget' than the Minister for Home Affairs' approach to border security. You only have to look at the government's leaked talking points this week to know that the minister is a little bit obsessed when it comes to talking about Labor. After all, it was a Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who in fact did the heavy lifting to get the boats stopped. Scott Morrison has given himself that little trophy about, 'I stopped the boats.' We've all seen the photo of that in his office. He picked up and ran with what Kevin Rudd had been putting in place. Peter Dutton swanned into the portfolio and he assumed that the risks to Australia's border security would remain static. But, while the Minister for Home Affairs has been so keen to talk about boats, he has missed the fact that the people smugglers have changed their business model from boats to planes. He has utterly missed the fact that the people smugglers have changed their business model from boats to planes. That is why we are seeing this massive blowout in the number of people who are coming to Australia seeking asylum coming through our nation's airports.

I want to put on record that there is nothing wrong with seeking asylum—it is an important legal right—but that is not what is happening here. What is happening here is that people smugglers are trafficking workers, largely from China and Malaysia, on electronic tourist and other valid visas. They are bringing people into Australia. They are getting them to apply for asylum while they are here. They know that because this department has had a blowout in processing all types of applications—asylum, citizenship, parent visas, child visas. All of those time frames have blown out. So what happens? These people are put on bridging visas. They are given work rights and then they are sent out to work in low-paid, exploitative conditions. They are sent out to work in horticulture, in hospitality and in a range of other industries to work in these low-paid, exploitative conditions—conditions that I can only describe as akin to slavery.

I have met some of these workers. They tell stories of being paid just a couple of dollars an hour. They tell stories of having their belongings taken away from them while they are out during the day at work and then they are forced to buy them back from the labour hire company. They tell stories of how the labour hire company takes their passports and their papers and essentially holds them hostage.

I just want to make a couple of observations here. One is that the growers in our horticulture industry are not to blame for this. They are in fact sick of this going on. They are being held hostage by these labour hire companies as well, and by this government's failure to provide an appropriate visa system that provides the reliable, steady stream of workers they need. That is why we saw the horticulture sector out last year arguing for an agriculture visa. That is why we see them in the building here today, trying to meet with MPs to talk about the fact that they do not have access to a steady supply of workers. I met with one grower who offered to directly hire the workers who were coming onto his farm and pay them appropriately—because he was already paying the appropriate wage to the labour hire company; it just wasn't being passed on to the workers. He offered to do that, and the next day half the workers didn't turn up, because they couldn't: they were essentially being held hostage by the labour hire company, which had their passports and their papers.

That is the trafficking of workers into this country and the exploitation that is taking place under this government, which has failed to notice that people smugglers are using the asylum seeker system and the blowout in processing times to traffic people here to work in exploitative conditions. The questions I asked on notice were designed to get a better understanding of the scale of the problem, to define it, to help us to find a policy solution. And when I say 'us' I don't just mean the Labor Party; I mean us, this Senate, and us Australia. I've held two roundtables, one here in Canberra and one in Shepparton in Victoria, where I have sat down and spoken with local councils, with unions, with the growers and with the growers associations. I have been to farms. I have talked to workers who have been exploited. I have tried to help define this problem so that we can try to find some solutions.

That, though, is not what the government seems to be interested in. They know—and they themselves cite a figure—that some 85 per cent of the people who apply for asylum, when they come to our airports, are found not to be refugees. This is clearly what is happening. People are being trafficked here. And, by the way, I say to the members of the government and I say to the people who are here today listening to this debate and across Australia who are listening: don't just take my word for it. Assistant Minister Jason Wood, in this government, was previously the chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Migration. What did he say in a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Migration report last year? He said that criminal syndicates and illegitimate labour hire companies are exploiting a loophole in our immigration system to traffic workers into the country. Those are the words of the assistant minister in this Liberal-Nationals third-term government. If he can see it, why can't the government see it?

And take the word of the member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster, who described what is going on in horticulture as 'a crisis'. She has described it as a crisis. She has called on her own Prime Minister to take action on this, yet the government sits silent. And not only do they sit silent; they stand condemned of being unable to do even the basic maths to appropriately count the number of people who are coming to our airports and claiming asylum. They lack the capacity to comply with the standing orders of this Senate to supply answers to questions on notice within the required 30 days. If they were so serious about border security, they would have these answers at their fingertips and they would be able to supply them to the Senate.

Let me also make this point. When people are trafficked into the country, it is an exploitation of those people, and we should be morally outraged and we should condemn it. I don't think the mums and dads of Australia would like to know that the fruit they are putting in their children's lunchboxes was picked by some 19-year-old woman who's been trafficked here, who is being paid $4 an hour and who is subject to physical and sexual abuse. I really don't think that is the Australian fair go, the Australian way of life or something that the mums and dads of Australia would appreciate.

Let me also make the observation that when we build an economy based on a temporary exploited migrant workforce it lowers the wages and conditions available across the economy. When we have workers in hospitality or in horticulture or in beauty or in transport or in any other industry working for as little as $4 an hour, that makes it really hard for other businesses to compete on price and it lowers the wages and conditions. It's perhaps not surprising coming from a government that said that low wages were a design feature of their economic plan. This is the design feature they have for Australia. They are building an economy based on a low-paid, migrant, temporary and exploited workforce.

The fact that they cannot stand here today in the Senate and answer basic questions after 30 days about the number of people who are coming through our airports and claiming asylum—when they have no recognition that this is a problem, when they have their own ministers and members calling out for them to take action and when they have the horticulture industry in the building today trying to get solutions in front of government—means they should stand condemned, and they are condemned. I look forward and hope that, when the minister finally answers my questions, he gets his maths right and he gets his answers right. But, more importantly, I hope we get action on this problem and we get a solution.