Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Keneally for bringing this matter—a very important matter—before the Senate. And, while I'm handing gratuitous thanks around the chamber, I want to thank and acknowledge the work that then Senator and now Minister Reynolds did in shepherding the Modern Slavery Act through the previous parliament. Of course it was supported by the Australian Greens, although we did express, and we still retain, the view that penalties should have been part of the legislation. And I thank Senator Keneally for her support for that comment. I can only hope that when the review that's required does take place, there will be a recommendation for penalties to be inserted into the act.

The Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group is the topic of this matter of public importance, and the Australian Greens share the concerns articulated by Senator Keneally. This act, this piece of legislation, is essentially a supply chain management act, and it deals in large part with working conditions. It would have been most helpful if the Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group contained people with expertise in supply chain management and with expertise in and relationships with people who represent workers in this country. The minister's guidance material on the Australian Modern Slavery Act states in the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018: Guidance for Reporting Entities:

Collaboration with civil society organisations such as non-government organisations, as well as other stakeholders like workers and their representatives, can be an important way to strengthen your entity's response to modern slavery.

That's obviously aimed at corporations, in the main, but the point that it makes is equally relevant to the make-up of the Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group. So where in this expert advisory group are civil society organisations and NGOs, and where are the workers and those who represent workers?

I'm also in possession of the letter that Senator Keneally referred to—that is, a letter to Assistant Minister Wood signed by a number of civil society and workers organisations, including Human Rights Law Centre, Australian Council of Trade Unions, United Workers Union, Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, Be Slavery Free, Transparency International Australia, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, the Salvation Army, ActionAid, RMIT Business and Human Rights Centre, Victorian Trades Hall Council, University of New South Wales, University of Melbourne, University of Technology Sydney, University of Western Australia, Monash University, RMIT University and UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Those groups, and the signatories to that letter who represent those groups, have made it perfectly clear to Assistant Minister Wood that the appointments to the Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group that have been announced by Mr Wood overwhelmingly represent business interests. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched this government in action over the last parliament and in this parliament, because—let's face it—they are most comfortable when they are hearing from their corporate mates and they are least comfortable when hearing from areas of our community like civil society organisations and unions who represent workers. I'd add that, outside the context of this debate, what makes them most uncomfortable is receiving advice and suggestions from the environment movement, but that's a subject for another day.

As the letter points out, 'The need for the government's approach to be informed by those working directly with workers at risk is critical.' It's very difficult to argue with that sentiment, very difficult indeed, and it's a sentiment that is shared by the Australian Greens. This debate is encapsulated in the second-last paragraph in that letter to Assistant Minister Wood, which says:

This leads to the disturbing result that Australia's efforts in combatting modern slavery will be driven by companies that are subject to Australia's modern slavery laws, rather than the interests of people at risk of modern slavery.

Let's be very clear about this. The Modern Slavery Act is not intended to be beneficial legislation for corporations; it's intended to be beneficial legislation for people at risk of modern slavery. That's what it was designed to do. Even though it lacks some teeth and it lacks some structures that would allow it to perform that role to the full extent of its capability, it is, nevertheless, a decent first step down the road—and it could be a better step and a larger first step down the road if the Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group appointments were made with due consideration of the need to include representatives of civil society organisations, workers and unions who represent working people in Australia.

I also want to refer to a couple of matters that have come up in the debate about racism in this country—a very welcome debate that our country and many other countries around the world are engaged in at the moment. It's a debate that people are putting their lives on the line to have in many parts of the world, including in Australia. We have a Prime Minister who last week tried to claim that there was no history of slavery in Australia and then, when he was quite rightly pulled up on that, tried to weasel out of that claim with a 'sorry if you're offended' non-apology—the kind of non-apology that we hear far too much of in public life in Australia at the moment. What I want to say is that it's very difficult to understand how the Prime Minister of this country could be so ignorant of Australia's history. There has been slavery in Australia. There have been many shameful instances of slavery in Australia's history.

Unfortunately, one of the big issues that we have in this country, in the context of the debate about racism that we have had and are continuing to have in Australia, is the fact that so many of our structures are based on a racist colonial legacy, the concept of terra nullius and the fact that we are yet to reach genuine reconciliation with First Nations peoples in Australia. Until we have a treaty with First Nations peoples in this country, we will still have significant unfinished business. Until we have that treaty, it's going to be very hard to eradicate the kind of systemic racism that far too many First Nations people and people of colour in this country face every day. It's not just their daily lived experience; it is the structures of so much of what goes on in this country that are based on that racist colonial legacy and on the fact that we have yet to come to terms with the dispossession, the murders and the genocide that occurred in this country in regard to white settlement and the way that white people treated First Nations people when white people arrived in this country.