Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the bill stand as printed, but I understand that Senator Jordon Steele-John has an amendment.

Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed I do. I move amendments (1) and (2) together:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (at the end of the table), add:

(2) Page 15 (after 8), at the end of the Bill, add:

Schedule 3 — Goods produced by forced labour

Customs Act 1901

1 Section 50 (at the end of the heading)

Add "—general".

2 After section 50

Insert:

50A Prohibition of the importation of goods — goods produced by forced labour

The importation into Australia of goods produced or manufactured, in whole or in part, through the use of forced labour (within the meaning of the Criminal Code) is prohibited absolutely.

3 Subsection 51(1)

After "section 50", insert "or 50A".

4 Application provision

The amendments made by this Schedule apply in relation to goods imported into Australia on or after the commencement of this Schedule.

I am proud to be moving these amendments on behalf of the Australian Greens this evening. This is a move which we embark upon alongside community members and alongside diaspora groups that have been campaigning for this change for a very long time. This amendment would ban the import of products produced by forced labour from entering this country. Australia has been far too slow to act on stopping imports of products produced by forced labour. government measures, including business advisories, sanctions and import-export restrictions have occurred globally, but at this point Australia has not taken any public action. We now risk becoming a dumping ground for products tainted by slavery.

Perpetuating this grave human rights violation, rather than placing words of condemnation into action is shameful. Labor voted in support of banning products produced by forced labour when they were in opposition, when the same amendment to the Customs Act was last before the Senate. There is no good reason why they should not do the same today. Minister Wong has foreshadowed that the government will not support this amendment because of the Modern Slavery Review. This is a weak excuse. The terms of reference of the Modern Slavery Review specifically leave out the Customs Act. Labor have also just agreed at their national conference on the following:

Over 50 million people worldwide are trapped in modern slavery, many of whom are victims of exploitation in global supply chains. Australia has an important role to play in abolishing modern slavery, Modern slavery is a hidden problem that will not be discovered without meaningful attempts to expose it. Labor will ensure that Commonwealth criminal laws adequately capture, and prohibit, forced labour. Labor will enforce supply chain reporting requirements, including penalties for non-compliance.

A wide range of community organisations have joined with the Greens to call on Labor to prioritise this change now, and to do so now that they are in government and have the chance to do it. It is time for Australia to no longer be left to fall behind. It is time for Australia to join countries like Canada and the United States who have already implemented bans on these types of imports. A report released by the International Justice Mission found that more than 90 per cent of Australian businesses have identified potential risks of slavery in their supply chains, yet nearly 85 per cent of 404 company statements submitted to the Modern Slavery Statements Register failed to show any response to slavery or the risk of slavery in their operations or supply chains.

Across our region, forced labour is occurring en masse. To give the Senate some international examples, in Indonesia forced labour is seen in industries producing palm oil, on-board fishing vessels and in tobacco production, to name just a few. In Malaysia, migrant workers have been found to be involved in the production of garments under the conditions of forced labour. Globally, state-sanctioned forced labour is particularly common in the cotton sector. Each year in Turkmenistan, during the harvest season, citizens are forced out of their regular jobs to spend weeks picking cotton at work. In Saudi Arabia, millions of migrant workers fill mostly manual, clerical and service jobs constituting more than 80 per cent of the private sector workforce, governed by a system which gives the employers excessive power over their mobility and legal status in the country. Human Rights Watch tells us the system undermines and fundamentally underpins the vulnerability of migrant workers and subjects them to a range of abuses from passport confiscation to delayed wages and forced labour. Exporting prison-produced good is illegal under international and domestic law and international trade law but in the United States prison labour is a multibillion-dollar industry, with 37 states allowing the use of prison labour by private companies. In eight states prisoners are not paid for their work in state-run facilities.

Looking to the issues in relation specifically to the Uyghurs and to the treatment of Tibetan people, as this place is aware, since 2017, the Chinese government has imprisoned more than one million Uyghurs and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labour and forced sterilisation. A UN report released on 31 August by the outgoing Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet contained victim accounts that substantiate mass arbitrary detention, torture, cultural persecution, forced labour and other serious human rights violations. It recommends states, businesses and the international community should take action with a view to ending the abuses and advancing accountability. According to the end Uyghur forced labour campaign, one in five cotton garments are tainted by Uyghur forced labour. Forty-five per cent of the world's solar-grade silicon used for the creation of solar panels comes from the Uyghur region, and more than 17 industries globally are implicated in forced Uyghur labour.

In Tibet, UN experts have expressed concern over allegations that so-called labour transfer and vocational training programs imposed on Tibetans by the Chinese government are in fact being used as a pretext to undermine Tibetan religious, linguistic and cultural identity, to monitor and politically indoctrinate Tibetans, and warned that such programs result in forced labour. Some 500,000 Tibetans a year were subject to these programs, transferred to vocational training centres away from their families and homes.

This bill gives us the opportunity to send a message on Australia's position on these serious human rights abuses right now. As I have said, this is not the first time that this bill has come to the parliament. In fact, it has passed the Senate previously with the support of all parties, with the exception of the coalition. This included a yes vote from members of the Australian Labor Party. A bill focused on Uyghur forced labour goods was sent to an inquiry and this then produced a broader bill in relation to the banning of forced-labour-produced goods from all over the world without any exception. This was endorsed without reservation and passed by the Senate. It lapsed while sitting in front of the House of Representatives at the 46th Parliament. Even the United States state department, the Labor Party's closest international ally, indicated its support for the goals of the bill in the 46th Parliament, so did Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Fair Trade, Be Slavery Free, the Australian Tibetan Council, a wide range of Uyghur organisations both at home and abroad, and the Human Rights Law Centre amongst so many others.

Now is the time to send the message that Australia will not accept products produced by any taint of modern slavery. In the face of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity occurring in our very own region, this attempt to control the import of products produced with forced labour into Australia should be embraced by every party in this place. This would send a clear message to all countries that Australia sees forced labour as unacceptable and that our community will not accept that there have been goods produced by forced labour within our markets. We could see this parliament take immediate action to stop forced labour imports and no longer have Australia implicated in these horrific human rights abuses. I implore the Senate this evening to pass this amendment without hesitation.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting the amendment from the Greens and Senator Steele-John. The Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018 entered into force in 2018 and enforces reporting requirements. Australia has comprehensively criminalised modern slavery practices in divisions 270 and 271 of the Criminal Code Act 1995, reflecting Australia's obligations under international law and commitment to eliminating modern slavery, which includes forced labour. The reporting requirement applies to large businesses and other entities in the Australian market with annual consolidated revenue of at least $100 million. The reporting requirement supports the Australian business community to identify and address its modern slavery risks and to maintain responsible and transparent supply chains. Entities required to comply with the reporting requirement, including the Australian government, must prepare annual modern slavery statements. These statements must set out the reporting entity's actions to assess and address modern slavery risks in their global operations and supply chains. The Australian government publishes these statements through an online central register.

The Australian government is taking a global leadership role in combating modern slavery. There is no place for modern slavery in Australian community or in the global supply chains of Australian goods and services. We take these issues seriously and are taking action. The government is proud to commit an additional $24.3 million in funding for the Support for Trafficked People Program in our 2023-24 budget. This is the largest financial commitment the government has made to combating modern slavery crimes to date and underscores our strong commitment to eradicating modern slavery. Our Modern Slavery Act creates a robust transparency framework to give business actions to identify and address modern slavery in global supply chains. The government is committed to taking action.

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For similar reasons to those that the minister outlined, the opposition will not be supporting these amendments. But I do want to take the opportunity to recognise the very genuine sincerity which with the Greens have brought this issue forward and agree with them that this is a serious issue that must be addressed.

We are proud of the progress that we made when we were in government in introducing the modern slavery legislation, but I would be the first to acknowledge that it has not solved the problem and that more work is necessary. Equally, I have met with some of the groups that Senator Steele-John outlined in his speech on the amendment, including the Tibetan groups today and Uighur communities and others previously. They are absolutely right to continue to press us to do more to tackle this issue, because it is a shocking scourge and a moral stain. All Western governments should come together to address it in a way that can be effective and proportionate.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A division is required. As the bill cannot proceed until votes can be taken, I shall report to Senate.

Progress reported.

Ordered that the committee have leave to sit again on the next day of sitting.

(Quorum formed)