Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am continuing in my comments. After three inquiries, from 2015 to the 2019 inquiry, the Migrant Workers Taskforce, led by Professor Allan Fels, handed down its report, in which it said:

… there are unscrupulous employers in some industries who blatantly breach the law …

It handed down 22 recommendations. That was five years ago. The previous Liberal-National government abandoned many of those recommendations, despite having years in charge to act on them.

Then, in 2021, there was the Senate Select Committee on Job Security, which I chaired. We heard from five courageous workers from Vanuatu and Samoa who had earned as little as $6 an hour picking fruit. As one of them, Sergio, told us:

I came here to work for money. I did not come here as a slave.

We have to extend that inquiry because concerns were raised that workers were punished by their labour hire employer for giving evidence to the Senate.

We on this side have not forgotten the horrific stories that have come out about the treatment of temporary migrants. Under those opposite, our migration system effectively became a caste system, where temporary migrants would come to this country and be freely ripped off, paid below the minimum wage and denied basic rights and protections—and if they complained, they were duly deported. We saw the 7-Eleven scandal, going all the way back to 2016. Pranay Alawala, an international student, was owed more than $30,000 in unpaid wages. When he confronted his boss about the money, the franchisee's lawyer sent him a letter threatening to report him to Immigration for working more than 20 hours per week—a breach of his student visa conditions. Mohammed, a student from India, was paid just $5 an hour at 7-Eleven. When he complained and attempted to resign, he, too, was threatened with deportation. These are just a few of the stories of how shonky employers have exploited vulnerable people in the workplace.

This bill makes it a criminal offence to use a person's migration status to exploit them at work. That means employers threatening temporary migrants with deportation will now be treated as the criminals they really are. This bill enacts recommendation 19 of the Migrant Workers Taskforce, which the Liberal and Nationals were handed five years ago and never acted on. This bill also enacts recommendation 20 of the Migrant Workers Taskforce, which will prohibit employers who exploit workers from engaging more workers on temporary visas. This is absolutely essential to breaking the cycle of exploitation. Again, this was given to the previous government five years ago, and it was never acted on. How many thousands of migrant workers have suffered as a result of their indifference?

Many of these horrific stories have only come to light because of the tireless work of the trade union movement and the services they support, including the Migrant Workers Centre in Victoria and the Visa Assist service in Unions NSW. When people come into this chamber and denigrate unions, this is what they're denigrating: services which have provided a voice to the voiceless; vulnerable people who have come to this country to get an education and to build a better life for their families, and who have been subject to some of the most horrific abuse; migrant workers who have been sexually assaulted by their employers and suffered horrific injuries at work or been jammed into unsafe and unsanitary living conditions.

Last year, Unions NSW brought a delegation of migrant workers into parliament to discuss these issues. I met with two of those workers. One was a woman on a 457 temporary skilled visa who worked as a massage therapist. She was forced to pay her wages to her employer, who also restricted her movement. When she complained, she was threatened with deportation, and threats were made against her family's safety. When she finally escaped her employer, she was in breach of her visa conditions. She came to the union for help.

Likewise, the other person I met here was on a PALM scheme temporary visa, working in fruit picking. He wasn't provided with suitable safety equipment, and one day he sustained an injury that resulted in him partially losing vision in one eye. Then his employer forced him to come back sooner than advised by the doctor, which exacerbated the injury and forced him to get surgery, resulting in the loss of vision becoming worse. As a final insult, his employer then stopped sponsoring his visa, which made it difficult for him to remain in Australia and to get medical treatment which was unavailable in his home country.

These stories are just horrific, but they are out there and they happen far more than you think and to many, many people. As Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey has said:

The current system that was established by the former coalition government … is set up to facilitate ongoing exploitation.

I want to thank the minister for immigration for stepping in and assisting those two workers. As Minister Giles has said:

When migrant workers are being underpaid—it hurts all of us, driving wages and conditions down for everyone …

If not for unions, many of these stories would never have come out. I want to acknowledge the Retail Supply Chain Alliance, the Transport Workers Union and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, who have shone a spotlight on these issues in recent years.

The laws introduced in this bill are important, but the fact is that legal protections do not help people if they cannot be enforced. They need to be able to be enforced. A set of laws are just that—something that's proclaimed. It's in a written document. You might even read it on the internet. But what gives it life and breath is the opportunity to turn around and speak out—the opportunity to actually have people who support you when you speak out. That's the critical role that's played by unions. We know that the Fair Work Ombudsman will never and could never have the breadth and resources required to deal with the scale of exploitation of migrant workers. That's why ensuring highly trained and officially registered union officials have the powers needed to inspect compliance with workplace laws is so important.

Right now, in another piece of legislation to come before this chamber, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill, there are measures to remove the red tape around unions' right of entry where there is a reasonable suspicion of wage theft. Wage theft impacts migrant workers on an astronomical scale. The final report of the Migrant Workers' Taskforce cited a 2016 survey, which found the following:

of migrant workers—

said they earned $12 per hour or less and 46 per cent said they earned $15 per hour or less …

When wage theft is endemic, we need to cut red tape in order to allow unions to help uncover it—because, when good employers are doing the right thing, they're competing with mongrel employers doing the wrong thing. You have to make sure the playing field is not only justified for business and justified for the workers; it's about fairness within our economy.

There's a reason that the only groups opposing those laws are groups like the National Farmers Federation. It's because some of their members—some of their members—have profited from exploiting and ripping off vulnerable people. But what about the farmers who are doing the right thing? Why should they be undercut by a minority who are mistreating their employees?

I commend these laws and other protections for migrant workers introduced in the protecting worker entitlements bill last year. But, again, these laws will need to be enforced, and unions must play a pivotal role in doing so.

It's not surprising that big business groups like the National Farmers Federation and their lackeys in the Liberal Party and the National Party oppose that concept, because the Liberals and Nationals are always for low pay. At every step, they're always opposed to fair pay, fair conditions and a fair playing field between businesses. They are opposed to horticultural workers being entitled to minimum wage. They refused to implement the recommendations of the Migrant Workers Taskforce for years.

I know a number of the senators on the opposite side and I know they hold very similar values to many Australians on these issues I've raised. So I put to all of those who are in the majority of the Liberal Party and National Party: start holding the values of all Australians. It's so critical. What this bill goes to the heart of and what we were seeing through the job security inquiry that I chaired was that, under the old system, if your employer abused you, if your employer ripped you off, if you left that employer, it was called absconding. In actual fact, some in this chamber will remember two really wonderful missionaries that live and operate in Vanuatu and are Australian citizens operating in Bundaberg. One of those wonderful people is an ex-blackbirded granddaughter of a blackbirded family who turned around and was one of those missionaries. They had people coming to their place after they had been abused and had money stolen from them to get sustenance, to be able to eat and to work out, 'What in the heck do I do?' because they had broken the law by breaking the chain.

Slavery under the old laws, under those existing laws, was identified by the migrant taskforce and also by the job security inquiry. They found a critical need for these laws to be changed. There is a critical need for these new laws to make sure that those fighting for what's right and those who have the strength to turn around and say, 'I'm going to fight for what's right,' have the capacity to turn around and stand up for what's right without having the repercussions of the state, the national government, abusing what should be a human right within this country. Be under no illusion. This is a human rights rectification in the Australian economy. It means that good businesses will have a chance to compete with businesses that have been doing this sort of atrocious exploitation in so many parts of the labour market across the economy.

Too many of those opposite have consistently opposed every measure we've introduced to improve pay, improve job security and close the loopholes some businesses use to undermine our laws and unfairly compete with businesses doing the right thing. Here's a chance not only to do the right thing by passing law into paper, emails and technology. This is an opportunity to empower people in other legislation that complements this to make sure that it's actually a living, breathing document so that next time you abscond you are not absconding; you have a right.

Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I am happy to support the passage of the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill through the Senate. These are much-needed, long-overdue reforms affecting the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our community, in our society. We know that migrant worker exploitation has been widespread in Australia. According to a report by the Grattan Institute released last year, between five and 16 per cent of employed recently arrived migrants—that's between 27,000 and 82,000 workers—are paid below the national minimum wage. In addition, between 1.5 and eight per cent of recent migrants are underpaid by at least $3 an hour. That's between 6,500 and 42,000 people underpaid. Migrants are twice as likely to be underpaid as long-term residents, and they struggle to find work or are employed well below their education levels. This is despite the fact that migrants have, on average, a higher level of education than people born in Australia.

The Migrant Workers Centre in Victoria has some useful case studies that bring some of these statistics to life. Felisia's story is a good example. Felisia came to Australia from South-East Asia as a 29-year-old on a student visa in 2009. She had a bachelor's degree in business management and continued her studies in Australia with a diploma in business management. Despite having experience working in her field, Felisia had a tough time finding work after her studies. She eventually found a job as a marketing manager, but she was underpaid from the beginning. She stuck it out because she was relieved to finally have a job and it meant she had a pathway to a skilled sponsorship visa. But, in addition to the wage theft, Felisia's boss had also begun to harass her and bully her at work. He made her stay late without pay and began asking her to accompany him to events outside of work hours. She experienced outbursts of anger when she refused his requests, and his behaviour had escalated to sexual harassment. After Felisia reported his behaviour, she lost her job. Her fears around her uncertain visa circumstances meant she did not pursue an unfair dismissal claim. Additionally, she had to restart her permanent visa eligibility process despite the harassment that she had endured.

Then there's Ravi's story. Ravi was a 26-year-old who came to Australia in 2019 with his wife, who was studying. He got a job as a truck driver with an on-demand delivery company that operated in a gig economy model. His employer asked him to apply for an ABN instead of a tax file number, which is usually required for independent contractors that run their own business. By asking Ravi to attain an ABN instead of a tax file number, his employer sought to take advantage of him to avoid paying award wages and entitlements.

Both Felisia's and Ravi's difficulties highlight how Australia's visa system has historically pushed migrant workers to accept exploitative conditions in the hopes of securing their life in Australia. Thankfully, Ravi's and Felisia's stories end relatively happily. In Ravi's case, he was successfully able to reclaim over $9,000 in wages after fighting against his employer's incorrect classification of him as an independent contractor. Felisia eventually found another job in her field and learnt about unions and her rights at work. But this isn't the case for thousands of other exploited migrant workers in Australia.

Exploitation like this can occur for a range of reasons. In 2019, a report by the Migrant Workers Taskforce highlighted some factors which may contribute to migrant workers' vulnerability to exploitation. They include: limited English language skills, lack of knowledge of workplace laws and standards, a willingness to accept below-award wages, the remoteness of some working locations, business models that rely heavily on labour hire companies, and franchise models that make it difficult for franchisees to run at a profit without underpaying wages.

The Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Bill 2023 introduces several mechanisms to address some of these vulnerabilities and the crisis of migrant exploitation in Australia more broadly. This bill makes it a criminal offence for people to coerce someone into breaching their visa conditions. It bars businesses from further hiring people on temporary visas where they have exploited migrants via the introduction of prohibition notices. It increases penalties and compliance tools to deter exploitation. It repeals section 235, which makes it an offence for a noncitizen to contravene conditions of their visa and was seen to discourage the reporting of exploitative behaviour. In short, dodgy employers will no longer be able to assume that international students and other migrants will suffer in silence if they are underpaid or abused.

Professor Allan Fels AO, co-chair of the government's Migrant Workers Taskforce, says that it was obvious 10 years ago that the actions that the government is taking now were required. He notes that the problem of migrant exploitation is so widespread that strong, comprehensive remedies are required but that they would not have been required on this scale had the problem been tackled at the outset.

It's an absolute shame that the previous government failed to act against migrant worker exploitation when they had a decade to do something about it. By stepping through some of their actions over the last decade, it's clear that the coalition have been more than willing to capitalise on migrant labour without wanting to spend a cent on safeguarding their rights. A large number of people come to Australia with the promise of well-paid jobs working on farms. People who held temporary protection visas and safe haven enterprise visas worked, paid taxes, started businesses and built lives in our communities, often in rural and regional areas. However, without permanent visas, they couldn't get a loan to buy a house, build their business or pursue further education. The coalition government blocked the ambition of thousands and thousands of migrant workers, and it's an absolute shame on the coalition. The previous government's inaction and wilful ignorance also ensured that migrant workers were highly vulnerable to extreme exploitation and wage theft. They were at the beck and call of the agents and labour hire companies that arranged to bring them to Australia. Shame.

Secondly, those opposite refused to increase the minimum salary for skilled temporary entrants for a decade. The temporary skilled migration income threshold was frozen at $53,900 from 2013 on, after successive coalition governments chose to do nothing about it and chose not to raise it. Shame. The Albanese government, on the other hand, increased the minimum income threshold to $70,000 from July last year. This adjustment ensures that the income threshold is in line with the current job market.

Thirdly, the coalition government allowed overseas students to work unlimited hours. A representative of the International Education Association of Australia, Phil Honeywood, said that the coalition's 2021 decision—which was made to plug workforce shortages—involved no consultation whatsoever with the international education sector. There was no consultation whatsoever before they made this important policy decision. When he contacted the former minister for education, the message he received was that corporate Australia needed unskilled labour because there were no more people on working holiday visas, and the easiest way to fund the labour force was with full-time students.

Prior to COVID border restrictions, international students were able to work 20 hours a week while completing their studies—in line with laws in other jurisdictions like Canada and the UK. This meant that international students could focus on a quality education in one of the best education destinations in the world. The impact of this change, according to the Council of International Students Australia, was that students who came to Australia for legitimate study reasons were under severe mental health pressure to capitalise on the unrestricted working hours. This also meant that students were less likely to achieve their main goal, which was to complete their course and complete it well.

Last year the Albanese government reduced student work hours to 48 hours per fortnight that classes are taking place. This change allows students to focus on obtaining a quality Australian education and qualification while also gaining valuable work experience and contributing to Australia's workforce needs. International higher education graduates with eligible qualifications were also granted an extra two years of post-study work rights from 1 July 2023. This increases the availability of a well trained and highly capable workforce and helps plug the skills shortage that we have in our nation right now.

Finally, the coalition government refused to progress key recommendations of its own Migrant Workers Taskforce. The Albanese government isn't looking the other way on this issue. We are tackling complex, wicked problems head-on and doing it correctly. We're doing it by driving systemic changes to our migration system, which will ensure it works in the interests of Australian workers and Australian businesses. We are doing the work required to ensure that no-one who comes to this country is exploited or abused.

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

I thank those who've contributed to this debate. Australia is a safe and prosperous country in which to live, work, study and travel. We must work hard to ensure that this remains. So many workers who hold a visa make essential contributions to our economy, whether it's through their work in agriculture, hospitality, construction and aged care or in our hospitals and universities. We have an obligation to ensure their rights are respected in the workplace. Unfortunately, there are too many situations where people are exploited. Unaddressed exploitation puts downward pressure on wages and conditions for all workers. It creates a competitive disadvantage for all those employers who do the right thing. The migration amendment bill will strengthen the compliance and enforcement framework available under the Migration Act. The bill provides a framework to strengthen employer compliance and to help ensure that law-abiding Australian employers are not undercut by unscrupulous competitors.

The government has made a number of amendments. I thank the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for the spirit in which the inquiry was undertaken, as these amendments improve the bill. These amendments focus on providing clarity and transparency, and they provide assurance the bill is comprehensive. I can also note, in response to Senator McKim earlier today, that the bill will of course continue its deep engagement with civil society, unions and indeed business organisations as further work is developed. This will include our platform commitments concerning protection against cancellation and encouraging people to speak up. This will occur in the coming weeks and months. It is time to move ahead with these reforms to protect workers. The government has made a strong commitment to tackling exploitation and has taken a number of steps already to acquit this. This bill is another important milestone in the government's reform agenda. I commend this bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

(Quorum formed)

Bill read a second time.