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

To continue with my contribution to the debate on the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023, the review, led by Professor John McMillan, was completed last year. The Human Rights Law Centre, in its submission to that review, said:

Compliance with the mandatory reporting criteria remains patchy … the quality of reporting … remains poor … many companies are still not identifying obvious modern slavery risks in their supply chains or taking meaningful action to address them.

Professor McMillan said, in his final report:

A widely endorsed view in the consultations for this review is that there is no hard evidence that the Modern Slavery Act … has yet caused meaningful change for people living in conditions of modern slavery.

In Australia, temporary migrants are also particularly vulnerable to modern slavery. The Australian Council of Trade Unions has pointed out that the drivers of exploitation include insecurity due to temporary visa status and visa arrangements that tie workers to their employers.

Through the Senate Select Committee on Job Security in the last parliament, I heard firsthand from temporary migrants who had been subjected to slavery or slavery-like conditions. Kate, an agricultural worker from Taiwan, told us about how she took a job picking oranges for $25 per bucket. When she arrived on the farm, she was told that a bucket is 800 kilograms worth of oranges. She said, 'There's no room for negotiation.' She went on to say:

I was very afraid of getting issues when I needed to renew my visa. I was afraid that reporting my condition and making a complaint to the government would risk my new visa application.

We also heard from a number of workers from Vanuatu and Samoa, who courageously told us about their exploitation on farms in Victoria and Queensland. They were earning as little as $2.50 an hour while living in slum conditions leased to them by the labour hire company at an exorbitant rate. These workers were people such are Sergio, a Vanuatuan man. He'd come here to pick grapes. He told us, 'I came here to work for money. I did not come here as a slave.'

Of course, we heard from highly respected Australian missionaries Geoff and Jane Smith, who are charity workers in Bundaberg. Their home was subject to a dawn raid by nine Australian Border Force troopers because they were suspected of aiding migrant workers who had fled from slavelike conditions. As Jane told the inquiry, 'I was in bed asleep and I heard a shuffle past my bedroom window. Next minute, I get up and all these police are in my house and they said, "We've come here to raid your house."' At the same time, the former minister for home affairs, Mr Dutton—now the opposition leader—was plastering farming regions with posters warning workers that if they absconded they would be deported and bring shame on their families.

While Mr Dutton was threatening these workers with deportation, 45 workers on the Pacific Labour Mobility Scheme died at work, many of whom had visas tied directly to their employer, meaning they had no way of leaving an unsafe or deadly work environment. That's the system of those opposite—a protection racket for the very worst employers in our country.

This is a very serious matter we're considering today. We've already made urgent changes to our workplace laws to make it illegal for businesses to threaten their employees on the basis of their visa status. We've amended migration laws to introduce new visa protections for migrants exploited at work. We've decriminalised undocumented work by migrant workers and established criminal offences for employers who exploit workers. Where Mr Dutton threatened people escaping slavery with deportation and shame, we are making it safer and easier for people to come forward.

This bill and the review of the Modern Slavery Act are in addition to the changes we have already made to our workplace and migration laws. The McMillan review of the act made 30 recommendations, which the government is in the process of responding to. Several of the recommendations relate to the Anti-Slavery Commissioner, which the bill establishes. The commissioner will have functions, including to engage and support victims and survivors of modern slavery, to promote compliance with the Modern Slavery Act and to support businesses to address risks of modern slavery practices in their operations and supply chains.

We've been calling for an antislavery commissioner since 2017, so this is an important step forward. It should be viewed in the context of the work that is being done, and is ongoing, in the review of the act and in migration and workplace laws more generally. It's also clear that more needs to be done. As a broad range of groups have noted, the existing Modern Slavery Act has failed. As the ACTU said in its submission to the review of the act:

… the primary measure of the impact of the MSA must be whether it is working to eliminate modern slavery … On this measure, it is clear the MSA is not succeeding.

The 'transparency framework' approach of the MSA is not an effective strategy for addressing modern slavery. It is based on the flawed assumption that reporting alone will improve business practices—

and as they—

compete for funding and consumer support … 'businesses that fail to take action will be penalised by the market' …

Oh, my God, that's out of date, isn't it?

Leaving things up to the market to take care of has rarely, if ever, actually worked. What a ludicrous way to approach a serious issue—where the slave owners and those profiteering from slavery are actually going to turn around and self-regulate. What a novel approach.

A review by the Human Rights Law Centre, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Baptist World Aid, the UNSW Human Rights Institute, the University of Western Australia and the University of Notre Dame looked at how this transparency framework was working. They reviewed the modern slavery statements of 102 companies in high-risk sectors, including companies supplying garments sourced from China, rubber gloves sourced from Malaysia, seafood from Thailand and horticulture in Australia, and found that less than half actually identified and disclosed modern slavery risks. For example, three in four companies sourcing garments from China failed to mention the risk of Uighur forced labour in their supply chains. That is an extraordinary failure.

Even taking ASX 200 companies, who should be best placed and resourced to enact the previous government's approach, a 2021 review found that a third of ASX 200 companies' modern slavery statements were noncompliant with the act. How's that for market forces when even the highest profile public companies in the country are thumbing the nose? If a third of the biggest public companies in Australia aren't compliant, what hope do we have for everyone else? It's clear that the act is not being taken seriously in the absence of real legal obligations, real penalties for noncompliance and real enforcement mechanisms. But that was the whole point of the previous government's approach to modern slavery: to give the appearance of taking it seriously while allowing slavers to profiteer. That's why the McMillan review called for the establishment of due diligence obligations for businesses and for penalties for noncompliance.

I look forward to the Attorney-General's response to this review, noting his long-held concerns about the inadequacy of the act as it is currently drafted. I also note that a wide range of stakeholders and submissions on the bill call for the commissioner to also be equipped with investigative and enforcement powers. As the Human Rights Law Centre said in its submission:

… it is critical that the Commissioner be empowered to help monitor and enforce compliance with the Act … receive and handle complaints and undertake investigations regarding suspected instances of modern slavery.

The McMillan review also recommended new powers to support compliance with the act, and this should also be considered as part of the government's response. I note that the government's amendments to this bill, arriving from the Senate inquiry, clarify that the commissioner is able to refer matters for investigation to relevant agencies, including law enforcement agencies.

Finally, I want to express disappointment at the views expressed by some business groups on the review of the Modern Slavery Act. Slavery exists at the extreme end of the spectrum of workplace exploitation. This government has made sweeping, substantial changes to grow wages, improve job security and eliminate exploitation at work. At every juncture, groups like the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry have opposed those reforms. The chamber of commerce made similar comments to the modern slavery review, saying:

Significant cultural change is needed … to recognise this as an issue for many businesses … Forced efforts will drive forced behaviours …

… a more compliance driven approach will drive compliance based, blinkered approaches …

That's a bit of a clanger, isn't it? The chamber of commerce is telling victims of slavery that they should just wait and hope that businesses will do the right thing. I think it's time to hold businesses to account for slavery in their supply chains, and this bill is an important step forward.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I greatly admire Senator Sheldon's passion and advocacy in this area; however, there are some important points to note here. This is not just a question of business being expected to address, especially, offshore modern slavery. There are real practical issues in terms of business considering these issues and taking steps. The best approach is a team approach between government and business. In response to Senator Sheldon's comments, I want to read from a paper from the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner, Dr James Cockayne, who gave some extremely good evidence to our inquiry in relation to modern antislavery measures. He spoke about the People's Republic of China's response in relation to Western companies trying to deal with the issue of modern slavery within Xinjiang. This is how the People's Republic of China has responded, in the words of Dr James Cockayne:

Western efforts to call out human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and to regulate supply-chains passing through Xinjiang, have been met by a furious backlash from Beijing, with many components: a full-court media and diplomatic push, describing the allegation as the "lie of the century"; the adoption of an Anti-Sanctions Law that criminalizes—

Just reflect on this: 'criminalises'—

cooperation with foreign supply chain due diligence efforts …

So the People's Republic of China has introduced a law which would criminalise a company based in the People's Republic of China cooperating with a Western company, a company in Australia or a company in the United States, trying to carry out due diligence in relation to supply chains. Third:

harassment and intimidation of auditors and raids on auditing firms …

That is, firms trying to carry out the due diligence, which legislative regimes like this require, being raided. Fourth:

government-stoked online vitriol against campaigners, including several leading Australian researchers …

Fifth:

organised government boycotts and administrative harassment of Western retail brands operating in China, including major players such as H&M, Walmart and Intel.

These are the practical issues facing Australian businesses when they are seeking to undertake due diligence with respect to modern slavery issues in Xinjiang within the People's Republic of China. These are real issues. This is not just a question of business being held to account, as it should be held to account, with respect to this issue. It needs support from government, because there is very strong pushback from certain international players who don't like it when companies outside their jurisdiction undertake due diligence with respect to these issues. So this issue needs to be considered in that context.

Firstly I would like to sincerely acknowledge the work of the Attorney-General's Department with respect to this legislation. I think the effort that they've put into the legislation and also their cooperation with the inquiry was first class. The staff of the department should be complimented on that. I would also like to thank all the witnesses, especially from non-government organisations, who participated in the inquiry, including Dr James Cockayne, the New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner, who gave very good evidence. Also I want to acknowledge victims-survivors of modern slavery, who need to be kept at the centre of these reforms.

I am very pleased that the government has adopted amendments to this legislation. I genuinely believe it improves the legislation and I commend the government for introducing amendments to the legislation. I will speak in relation to one of those amendments shortly.

The coalition's record with respect to anti modern slavery measures should be considered, especially given the comments of Senator Sheldon. It was a coalition government that first introduced slavery offences into Australia's Criminal Code in 1999. It was a coalition government that in 2018 passed Australia's Modern Slavery Act. We are building on that act today through this legislation. It was a coalition government that first introduced the Modern Slavery Act which is being amended today. That needs to be recognised as well. That act shone a bright light on slavery risks in international supply chains. Lastly, it was a coalition government that developed the national action plan to combat human trafficking and slavery from 2015 to 2019 and the subsequent plan between 2020 and 2025.

If you want an international perspective with respect to the quality of our laws in this space compared with those of our international partners, you can do no better than refer to the comments of Mr Hyland, who gave evidence to our inquiry. He was the first modern antislavery commissioner in the world, appointed under the government of the United Kingdom. This is what he said about our laws: 'Currently, Australia is leading in creating transparency of modern slavery in supply chains.' So we're coming from a pretty strong base, a pretty strong foundation, which builds on the work of both sides of politics, and I think that should be generally recognised. For me, this is not a partisan issue. This should be dealt with on a non-partisan basis because I think we're all interested in making sure that people aren't the victims of modern slavery within our borders or outside of our borders.

Mr Hyland's comments were provided in response to a question on notice I put to him with respect to my deep concern about the definition of 'sensitive information' in the bill and how that would operate to potentially prevent the modern Anti-Slavery Commissioner from being able to discuss issues of great importance with respect to modern slavery in international jurisdictions. The concern there was that the original definition talked about the modern Anti-Slavery Commissioner not being able to include in the annual report or the strategic plan anything which 'would or might prejudice international relations'. I was deeply concerned that the operation of that definition would mean that issues such as those occurring in Xinjiang could simply not be included in an annual report or a strategic plan due to the pushback from the People's Republic of China. However, an amendment has been made to that definition of 'sensitive information'. It is a very good amendment, and I'm very pleased that that amendment has been made because I think it genuinely enhances the legislation.

I want to make some comments with respect to the position in Xinjiang, and these are included in my additional comments in the committee report:

On 31 August 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights … issued: OHCHR assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China.

This is what they found:

In summary, there are indications that labour and employment schemes … appear to be discriminatory in nature or effect and to involve elements of coercion, requiring transparent clarification by Government.

Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR—

the Xinjiang region—

in the context of the Government's application of counter-terrorism and counter extremism strategies. The implementation of these strategies, and associated policies in XUAR has led to interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights. These patterns of restrictions are characterised by a discriminatory component, as the underlying acts often directly or indirectly affect Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities.

Similarly, there are indications that labour and employment schemes for purported purposes of poverty alleviation and prevention of 'extremism' … may involve elements of coercion and discrimination on religious and ethnic grounds.

The recommendation to the business community was this:

… that it …

Takes all possible measures to meet the responsibility to respect human rights across activities and business relationships … including through enhanced human rights due diligence, and report on this transparently.

How did the People's Republic of China respond to that conclusion by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights? This is what they said:

… Based on the disinformation and lies fabricated from anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt, the so-called 'assessment' distorts China's laws and policies, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China's internal affairs …

It's in that context that we're dealing with the issue of modern slavery in overseas jurisdictions, where some of those jurisdictions push back hard and, as Dr James Cockayne said, use things such as media, diplomacy and an anti-sanctions law adopted in the People's Republic of China that 'criminalises cooperation with foreign supply chain due diligence' ealing with this issue requires moral courage on the part of not only businesses but also government, and it requires cooperation between business and government. Business cannot be expected to deal with these issues alone, especially when dealing with certain overseas jurisdictions. They require the support of government, which is one of the reasons why I'm very pleased with the amendments which are being made to this legislation.

Lastly, I want to return to one of the introductory points I made, and that is that victims-survivors of modern slavery must be kept central in our consideration of these matters. They must be at the centre of everything we do in this place in relation to these issues. When we're considering legislation in this space, we need to consider how the legislation will impact on victims-survivors. Again, there are some very pleasing amendments which are being made to the bill in that regard, including requiring the commissioner to engage with victims of modern slavery to 'inform and support' them with respect to the performance of the functions and including a principal objective in the strategic plan which sets out the objectives of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner to make 'guidance material publicly available to support victims of modern slavery'. That is welcome. It's about keeping the victims-survivors of modern slavery at the centre of our consideration of these matters.

In continuing that theme, I want to end my contribution—I probably should have started and ended my contribution with this, but at least I'll end with it—by paying tribute to one of those victims-survivors, Mr Moe Turaga, who actually appeared before the committee and gave evidence to the committee. He is a survivor and now a consultant in relation to these matters. After being a victim-survivor, he has now become an advocate, helping other people in this situation, and also a consultant. He appeared with the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network, and I compliment them on their work in this space. I want to end my contribution with his words, the words of a victim-survivor:

My strongest advice is for an explicit commitment in the bill to put survivors and our concerns at the centre of the commissioner's work.

I believe the amendments made to the bill do that, and I would like to sincerely thank Mr Moe Turaga for his advocacy, for his testimony and for all the work he does in the space. Similarly, I compliment various outstanding non-government organisations on all the work they are also doing in this space to try our best to eliminate modern slavery in Australia's supply chains.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Greens to indicate we will be supporting the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023, but, in doing so, we seek to amend and improve it in order to rise to the challenge that is modern slavery. I want to acknowledge the comments of previous speakers, and I particularly want to acknowledge the significant work of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee—the chair, deputy chair Senator Scarr and other members of that committee—in discussing with stakeholders the necessary improvements to the bill and looking at the significant gaps in the legislation as proposed, because the question that this bill and the inquiry that we had were meant to answer was this: what would it take to make laws that actually stop Australia and Australians participating in modern slavery, and not just in Australia but in increasingly global supply chains?

The report of the committee addresses a number of significant issues that stakeholders raised, and, while the recommendations that come from that are useful, they are modest. They've been included now in a series of amendments that the government is proposing to the bill to improve the system, but they didn't include a number of critical measures that were raised by stakeholders to make this bill actually rise to the challenge of trying to stamp out modern slavery in this country and around the world. For example, the bill does not provide the Anti-Slavery Commissioner with genuine independence by permitting them, when they're appointed, to provide advice and reporting directly to both the minister and parliament, and the bill does not provide for a multipartisan, joint oversight committee. They are elements you would include if you wanted a genuinely independent and empowered Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

The bill as initially drafted does not ensure that the Anti-Slavery Commissioner's work is informed by and led by the experience of victims-survivors, and it doesn't have a statutory reference and support panel. There are very modest amendments being proposed by the government, but they go nowhere near providing the kind of reference point and grounding in the experience of victims-survivors that, for example, the New South Wales legislation provides. It's inexplicable to the Greens why the government isn't willing to entrench those kinds of provisions more firmly in the legislation.

The legislation does not provide the Anti-Slavery Commissioner with the strong compliance powers needed to monitor and enforce compliance by corporate Australia and, indeed, require the Commonwealth to lodge full and complete modern slavery statements, and it's inexplicable why it doesn't. We've heard the evidence from the inquiry that significant elements of corporate Australia treat the provision of modern slavery statements as a tick-and-flick exercise because they know that there's no stick. There's no compliance stick if they fail to do their reporting or if they do it in a way that is derisory. Why not give the Anti-Slavery Commissioner the power to enforce compliance?

I think one of the issues that is going to arise from day one of the establishment of this office is that it will not meet the expectations of victims and survivors that the Anti-Slavery Commissioner will be able to seriously help them—that the commissioner will, first of all, have sufficient investigative powers to inquire into matters when a victim-survivor comes forward and says, 'I was the victim of modern slavery,' either the victim perhaps of an exploitative industry in Australia—and it does happen—or, as we've seen on multiple occasions, the victim of an exploitative industry in a foreign country.

This bill gives the Anti-Slavery Commissioner no power to even do preliminary investigations to understand the likelihood and the veracity of those complaints in order to inform industry and government as to how to respond, let alone to identify other victims-survivors who they could reach out to and help. They have no investigative powers. Stakeholders and the Greens don't believe the Anti-Slavery Commissioner's investigative powers should replicate the functions of police, but they should allow the Anti-Slavery Commissioner to respond to complaints of modern slavery, to do adequate investigations and to refer matters off where needed. What we get from the government is that there will be memorandums of understanding. They are not investigative powers.

Stakeholders also made it clear that the Anti-Slavery Commissioner's proposed existing functions—even the very modest existing functions—cannot be adequately exercised with the proposed $2 million annual budget. And it wasn't just one stakeholder who said that; it was every single engaged stakeholder—every single one of them. Yet we look again in this year's budget, and that's what we see for the Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

By way of perspective, the evidence before the committee was that this is a budget that's significantly less than is provided to the New South Wales Anti-Slavery Commissioner. Of course, the federal office will have a far greater remit than that important state equivalent. How can the government pass legislation and say that they're doing generational reform and seriously addressing modern slavery when they're establishing a federal regulator which has a fraction of the budget of its state equivalent and when much of this is going to be involved with assessing Australia's international trade connections? How can the Albanese Labor government seriously say that they're committed to addressing modern slavery when they are giving the federal regulator a fraction of what the state equivalent is being provided with?

I note that, following the work of the committee—and I particularly want to acknowledge the work of Senator Scarr in this regard—there are useful recommendations designed to deal with the narrowing of the definition of sensitive information that will be withheld, and, as I said, there are some modest but useful recommendations to require the commissioner to respond to those with lived experience, though they are well below the standard set by the New South Wales example. The reason I'm familiar with the New South Wales example is that I was a member of the parliament and of the two committees that reviewed the New South Wales legislation. It was initially a private member's bill that was moved in New South Wales, which was agreed to by the then government, but then the then government refused to implement it. It took a further two years of arm wrestling and wrangling with opposition from parts of corporate Australia to finally get the New South Wales legislation up and running and implemented. Every step of the way there was corporate resistance and, indeed, political resistance. It is a terrible missed opportunity for this federal legislation to not even meet the standards of the existing New South Wales legislation—to fall below that on critical elements. A lack of investigative powers, a lack of engagement with those of lived experience and a lack of funding stand out as highlights for what a tepid response this is from the Albanese Labor government.

To be clear, for the Anti-Slavery Commissioner to be able to deliver on the public mandate that will inevitably travel with that position, it needs to be able to take an active role in the identification and penalisation of modern slavery, and there's none of that in this bill. Having a body that provides victim-survivors with brochures on where they can go to seek justice or assistance, and otherwise just reviews and comments on government and corporate modern slavery statements, does not deliver on the promise that was made by the Albanese government first when it was in opposition and now that it's in government. To be clear, the Anti-Slavery Commissioner needs the backing of a commission to be able to undertake the full scope of expected work. There is no question that a standalone commissioner with a budget of around $2 million a year will be unable to discharge the duties required, even under this scheme, as the ACTU made clear during the public inquiry. It said:

We're also concerned about the small budget that the commissioner is being provided with—just $8 million over four years and $2 million a year ongoing. We're proposing that it be increased to enable it to effectively carry out its standard functions and be sufficient to deal with the scale and severity of the scourge of modern slavery.

Dr James Cockayne, the New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner, told the committee:

On the second question of whether there is a role for the New South Wales parliament's Modern Slavery Committee to discuss resourcing, yes, there is, and I do speak with them about that. I've raised on the record with them several times that my own budgetary allocation, which is currently out of the Department of Communities and Justice's own resources and which I note is larger than $2 million, which raises its own questions of why a federal commissioner would have a smaller allocation than an individual state. I believe that the allocation I receive is inadequate to allow me effectively to discharge my statutory functions at the New South Wales level.

There was a bucketload of this compelling evidence that leads to only one conclusion: the proposed budget for the federal Anti-Slavery Commissioner is manifestly inadequate. There should be an independent budget process and an adequate budget to ensure that the commissioner receives the funding that it needs. That would best be done if it were overseen by a joint parliamentary committee that reflected the make-up of this whole parliament, not one dominated by the government, which have indicated from day one that they want to strangle this office of the funding that's needed.

On enforcement powers, there are real concerns that, if the commissioner does not have sufficient powers to directly levy penalties, then it will be essentially toothless. As a minimum, there should be penalties available for the failure of government agencies or corporate Australia to meet the reporting requirements on modern slavery. The Anti-Slavery Commissioner should also have the necessary power to compel the production of documents, records and other evidence where the Anti-Slavery Commissioner has reasonable grounds to expect there has been such a failure. But, for reasons that are not explained other than by saying, 'Computer says no,' none of those powers have been given to the modern slavery commissioner. It would be a serious mistake on the part of the Albanese government to create this position and then limit it in large part to referring victims and survivors of modern slavery off to other agencies and otherwise just writing letters and reports identifying modern slavery. This model will fail to deliver on the mandate for the commissioner, and we will inevitably have to come back and significantly reform it.

On the question of investigative powers, the Human Rights Law Centre told the committee:

… in our view, the commissioner should not merely be a first point of contact; they should also be able to initiate their own investigations and inquiries. In order to promote compliance with the act, for example, the commissioner will need to be able to investigate companies that they believe to be providing misleading statements under the act. The office may also need to investigate particular high-risk sectors with a view to exposing bad systemic practices in order to better inform efforts to address modern slavery. These functions would not be intended to duplicate or interfere with investigations into individual suspected cases of modern slavery that may be more appropriately undertaken by law enforcement. The focus of the Modern Slavery Act is not on criminal investigations and enforcement but rather on driving changes in corporate behaviour in order to prevent modern slavery from happening in the first place.

I endorse those comments of the Human Rights Law Centre, but, unfortunately, those powers are not found in the bill. Carolyn Kitto from Be Slavery Free spoke to the committee, and I want to acknowledge her and Fuzz's work and their bravery over years and years. They said about the need for a fully-resourced and empowered antislavery commissioner:

So why do we need one? In 2018 we boasted that we were leading the world in our actions on modern slavery, and we were. We can no longer make that claim. It is one thing to have good legislation; it is another thing to actually decide that you're going to put in place the things that make that legislation actionable and enforceable, and that's what an antislavery commissioner would do. We need one to provide business, government, civil society and victims-survivors opportunities to work together.

To understand the scale of this challenge and why Australia must move faster, I think it's appropriate to end with the words of Walk Free, who advised the committee:

The Global Slavery Index estimates the prevalence of modern slavery at the country level around the world. The 2023 index said the global number was 50 million, which is an increase of 10 million since we did the last estimate five years ago, and in Australia that number is 41,000 for people living in modern slavery. That includes people living in forced labour and people living in forced marriage. That number has gone up from 15,000 five years ago, I believe, which I think was 2016.

Let's work together to fix this.

I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate is of the opinion that the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner should have the budget necessary to:

(a) administer and enforce the reporting requirements in the Modern Slavery Act across government, business and non-profit reporting entities; and

(b) deliver leadership on anti-slavery policy and practice".

I indicate we will be moving significant amendments to address the matters raised in that second reading contribution.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023. Can I say from the outset that I concurred with so of what Senator Scarr said during his contribution to this debate. It is a bipartisan solution, and we need that support to pass this legislation.

In times past, slavery was a simple concept to define: one person or group of people owning another person or group of people and subsequently forcing them to complete unfair labour tasks. Unfortunately, modern slavery is far more complex. In Australia, a person or a group of people are luckily no longer able to legally own another person or group of people. However, forced labour, sexual exploitation, child slavery, forced criminality, domestic servitude, forced marriage, organ harvesting and human trafficking are all elements of the newer concept of modern slavery. All these things are a horrible reality of our society here in Australia. Modern slavery practices are a major violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Australia is a party.

Modern slavery practices are serious crimes that have become more and more prevalent globally and are complex, always evolving and often hidden from the limelight by the perpetrators so they're not caught. We want to change that for the better. We know organised crime is also in this space. In 2019, Australian Institute of Criminology research found that there were between 1,300 and 1,900 victims of human trafficking and slavery in Australia between 2015-16 and 2016-17. Furthermore, this research project of the Australian Institute of Criminology also found that, for every detected case of modern slavery practices being carried out, there were four additional cases that remained undetected.

Australian businesses are also not safe from modern slavery. They are regularly exposed to modern slavery risks, and some goods and services available in our free market here in Australia are likely—very likely—to be tainted by modern slavery practices, whether it be forced labour, forced criminality or the like. While the establishment of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 is a good and progressive addition in combating the scourge of modern slavery, the Albanese Labor government recognises that more can be done, especially that more can be done to address the estimates that modern slavery crimes continue to increase here in Australia and abroad.

For a long time, civil society, businesses, industry and academia have advocated the establishment of an independent commissioner who can raise awareness on the issue of modern slavery here in Australia. These stakeholders have advocated a commissioner who can provide independent information and support to victims and survivors and targeted support to businesses to identify and address modern slavery risks in their supply chain.

In 2017, reports from the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, entitled Hidden in plain sightand An inquiry into human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices respectively, both explored and made recommendations for the Australian modern slavery laws that would establish an independent commissioner, which the Albanese Labor government joins in recommending.

The establishment of this bill builds on the Modern Slavery Act 2018, which I spoke about earlier, and delivers on the Albanese Labor government's tackling modern slavery commitment at the 2022 federal election by way of an amendment to the Modern Slavery Act 2018. This election commitment is all about further strengthening Australia's response to modern slavery and heightening our commitment to upholding the absolute right to freedom from slavery and forced labour and ensuring the right to protect against exploitation, violence and abuse.

Furthermore, the commissioner will be required to consider Australia's international commitments when performing their functions to ensure that implementations of Australia's human rights and trade obligations are appropriately respected and, importantly, upheld. The commissioner will be financially accountable to the Commonwealth and will provide an annual report on the outcomes of their work program, to be tabled in the parliament upon their completion. The commissioner will develop a strategic plan detailing their priorities, which is to be published on their website.

After all, it is about public awareness, and the best way to achieve that is through the commissioner. But I would like to, at this point in my contribution, acknowledge those community organisations and not-for-profits that have been working in our communities with survivors. The work that they have done has helped bring us to where we are now. The contributions to both of those committees that I referred to, from those who made submissions and came before those inquiries to give evidence, has helped shape where we are now. Going through the 2022 federal election, Labor made a commitment and, once again, we're delivering on that commitment.

Furthermore, though, going back to the commissioner, their responsibility would be to uphold Australia's public governance and privacy laws when performing their functions to protect individuals' and Australia's interests. The bill provides that the commissioner will be appointed through a strictly transparent and merit based process and will be appointed on a full-time basis for a term as long as five years. The commissioner can be reappointed once after their term expires. Having a two-term appointment and that process of making sure that we continue to renew the commissioner will help to continue to raise that awareness and to bring focus on the priorities during that period of time. It's always good to have fresh eyes and a fresh commissioner, in my view.

The commissioner will work collaboratively with government agencies to support existing initiatives while progressing new, complementary initiatives to address and combat modern slavery. Wherever there is organised crime involved in activities, as we know only too well, the criminals are always coming up with new strategies and new ways of trying to go undetected and under the radar.

Inquiries and reports can also be forwarded from the commissioner to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs for consideration. Further functions may be considered for the commissioner as necessary following the Albanese Labor government's response to the review. This bill will also support the Albanese Labor government's budget 2023-24 announcement on 9 May last year, which provided that $8 million over four years will be allocated for the establishment of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

Modern slavery is a confronting, disturbing and prevalent issue in our society and our country and beyond our borders. I have provided you with some facts about the logistics and strategy surrounding the establishment of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner. As has been commented by others in this place, in the speech from Senator Scarr I heard that this is a bipartisan issue. There is nothing partisan about this bill at all. So I feel confident that we will have the support. It's not a bill to try to make political points. It's about putting amendments forward that are going to make this legislation better legislation. It's in all our interests to do that. It's an incredibly important bill, and I urge those around the chamber to support this bill so we can move forward and get the first appointment of the new Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sophea was sold into slavery at the age of four. She was sent to a place 300 kilometres from home, where she was forced to sell cakes around the local village, even if she was ill. Sophea was given nothing to eat unless she sold all the cakes, and she was beaten every day.

Following the death of her parents, at age nine, Sinet was sent to live in an orphanage, together with her brothers and sisters. Children at the orphanage were forced to work in the rice fields and to entertain foreign tourists by singing and playing games with them. While the tourists would sometimes buy the children clothes or food, these were seized by the director of the orphanage and sold at the local market. Sinet was subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse by the director of the orphanage.

Moceica was approached by his cousin, a church minister, to go to Australia to study and earn money. When he arrived his passport was seized and he was told he had to pay off a debt for travel and visa costs. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, picking grapes, watermelons or lettuces. Moceica thought that the money from his labour was being sent to his family, but when he contacted his mother after two years he found that they had received none of it. He estimates that these traffickers made over $200,000 from exploiting his labour, and he still has scars on his back from falling onto barbed wire, for which he received no medical treatment.

These are just a few of the horrifying stories reported in the 2017 Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry into modern slavery titled Hidden in plain sight. Modern slavery practices are among the worst human rights abuses and are widespread throughout the world. They take many forms, including forced marriage, child exploitation, human trafficking, serfdom or servitude, forced labour and even slavery as it is known in the traditional sense. It is estimated that globally around 50 million people are subject to human trafficking and modern slavery. That is a staggering number, especially when you consider, for comparison, that it is more than three times the number of people who were enslaved during the entire three centuries of the transatlantic slave trade.

Modern slavery takes place in every country in the world—sadly, including Australia. According to the Office of the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner, there are 300 cases of modern slavery reported in Australia each year. But these cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimated that between 2015-16 and 2016-17 there were between 1,300 and 1,900 victims of human trafficking and slavery in Australia and that, for every victim detected, about four victims go undetected. International human rights group Walk Free puts the figure even higher, estimating that in 2021 there were 41,000 people living in modern slavery in Australia. These include people in forced marriages, including children, and also forced labourers, particularly in those industries with a high proportion of migrant workers, such as agriculture, construction, domestic work, meat processing, cleaning, hospitality and food services.

Australia's responsibility to tackle modern slavery doesn't just stop at our borders. There are many products being imported to Australia that have been produced with forced labour. We have a moral obligation not just to tackle modern slavery within our country but also to be part of the international effort to address the problem globally. The Modern Slavery Act has increased transparency in supply chains and elevated awareness among the Australian business community of modern slavery risks.

While I recognise that it was the previous government that introduced the Modern Slavery Act, in 2018, Labor in opposition did a great deal of the legwork in the years prior to develop a serious policy to tackle modern slavery. In doing so, we had numerous discussions with representatives of business, civil society and trade unions, and the act was brought about only after considerable pressure from Labor.

While passing the Modern Slavery Act into law was a step in the right direction, there is much, much more that needs to be done. The establishment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner was part of Labor's tackling modern slavery election commitment. In the 2023 budget we committed $8 million over four years to establish the commissioner, who will work across government, business and civil society to tackle modern slavery. Among the functions of the commissioner will be engaging and supporting victims and survivors of modern slavery, promoting compliance with the Modern Slavery Act and providing targeted support to business to address risks of modern slavery practices in their operations and supply chains.

The commissioner will be an independent statutory office holder, and this independence will be vital for the commissioner's ability to engage with stakeholders and develop effective policy and practice to address modern slavery. The commissioner will be accountable to the parliament and will be required to establish a strategic plan outlining their priorities. Annual reports tabled in parliament will inform the parliament and the public of the commissioner's activities and their progress towards strategic outcomes. The commissioner will be appointed through a merit based and transparent selection process on a full-time basis for a term of up to five years, and the commissioner may be reappointed once after their initial term.

If this bill is passed, the commissioner will not, on their own, constitute the Australian government's entire response to modern slavery. Rather, their office will be part of a comprehensive framework that includes the Modern Slavery Act criminal offences, specialist Australian Federal Police investigative teams, a support program for victims-survivors, a human trafficking visa framework and a modern slavery research program. The commissioner's functions will complement the work being undertaken to combat modern slavery by the Attorney-General's Department, other government agencies and the Ambassador to Counter Modern Slavery, People Smuggling and Human Trafficking. The establishment of the commissioner will add to our arsenal for combating the horrific practice of modern slavery, both at home and abroad.

An independent anti-slavery commissioner has widespread support from stakeholders across civil society, trade unions, peak business groups and academics. It has also been recommended by several inquiries and reports. The 2017 Hidden in plain sight report, which I mentioned earlier, found that the establishment of an independent anti-slavery commissioner in Australia would 'strengthen Australia's response to combating modern slavery'. Also in 2017, the report of the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement's inquiry into human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices stated: 'There may be merits in establishing an anti-slavery and trafficking commissioner independent from government.' The five-year statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act led by Professor John McMillan AO in May 2023 noted the Albanese government's commitment to establishing an anti-slavery commissioner, and observed:

There are high expectations that the Anti-Slavery Commissioner will play a pivotal role in lifting both recognition within Australia of modern slavery risks and the standard of business performance in addressing those risks …

The McMillan report also noted that, with only a few exceptions, there was strong support for an anti-slavery commissioner in submissions to the inquiry.

The most recent inquiry that considered the merits and role of an anti-slavery commissioner was, of course, the inquiry into this bill. While the report focused on the key issues raised by the provisions of the bill, there was strong support for a commissioner in the submissions to the inquiry. The Australian Human Rights Commission said in its submission:

The Commonwealth Government's decision to legislate an Anti-Slavery Commissioner is a welcome step towards further strengthening Australia's response to modern slavery. With an effective mandate, institutional independence and appropriate resourcing, the Anti-Slavery Commissioner will make an important contribution towards both combatting modern slavery and protecting human rights.

International human rights organisation Walk Free said in its submission:

We believe the establishment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner is crucial to monitor and support government and business to strengthen the prevention and remediation of modern slavery.

I note that some submitters, including Walk Free, the AHRC, the Maritime Union of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions, submitted that the commissioner should have a greater remit than that proposed in the bill. However, as the Attorney-General's Department noted in its submission to the inquiry, the office of the commissioner is being established with a view to considering further functions as necessary. For example, the government is still giving careful consideration to the recommendations of the McMillan review, and further functions may be considered for the commissioner as necessary, following the government's response.

By further strengthening Australia's response to modern slavery, this bill demonstrates Australia's heightened commitment to upholding the absolute right to freedom from slavery and forced labour and the right to protection against exploitation, violence and abuse. The Albanese Labor government remains firmly committed to tackling modern slavery.

I commend the bill to the Senate.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a servant to the fine people of Queensland and Australia, I note that the Modern Slavery Act 2018 establishes the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner as an independent statutory officeholder within the Attorney-General's Department. The role of this new commissioner is to bring together the different initiatives the government has taken since the Modern Slavery Act was enacted. These include a unit inside the Attorney-General's Department and other agencies, including Border Force, to monitor the existing anti-slavery legislation, and an ambassador to counter modern slavery, people smuggling and human trafficking. The Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023 clarifies the commissioner's ability to share information with the Australian Federal Police and other law officers. That will be useful where slavery is brought to light.

The definition of 'slavery' in the Modern Slavery Act, which the commissioner will be relying upon for their actions, is wide enough to include what everyday Australians would consider slavery. There is an issue with the definition of 'child slavery' that I will return to in a moment. Noting the absence of penalties in this bill and the modern slavery bill, I hope the commissioner does receive the level of cooperation necessary to eliminate slavery in the supply chains of corporations doing business in our country and of course eliminate slavery as it exists in Australia, which is mostly sex slavery. Senator Shoebridge has advanced an amendment which should improve cooperation with the commissioner. One Nation will support the amendment.

The commissioner will provide an independent mechanism for victims and survivors and business and civil society to engage on issues and strategies to address modern slavery. This is the area of the bill that was dialled up following the committee report. There seems to be a strong emphasis on telling the stories of those workers who are being exploited and preparing material to inform business and the public on the issue. While One Nation will be supporting this bill, I believe that Australians across our country consider slavery repugnant, and the best option is to proceed to criminal and economic sanctions right now for businesses that include slavery in their supply chains. Deal with it now and stop slavery now. Businesses have had more than three years to establish whether or not they have slavery in their supply chains. That should be plenty of time. Simply reporting on it—and self-reporting at that!—is not an effective solution. That approach is nearing its use-by date.

One Nation looks forward to the commissioner stepping this up and clearly communicating sanctions to business and working with the Attorney-General and the Minister for Trade and Tourism on further sanctions and penalties. It's essential that an Australian consumer can buy goods or services in our country and be safe in the knowledge that they are not rewarding the use of slavery. It's useful for people who see something to have somewhere to say something. For that reason I look forward to the commissioner operating a telephone and web function that allows people to report suspicions they have around the use of, or the keeping of, slaves. That could be used for reports of child slavery and child labour.

For all the talk about child labour, we still have children in the Congo digging up lithium so that urban elitists can buy their electric vehicles, install their power walls and pat themselves on the back about how worthy they are. This has to stop. Stop turning a blind eye to these kids dying in the Congo and other places. The mechanism in place so far has failed miserably to help child labourers, and One Nation has legislation already before the committee. It's our measure to prevent goods being made with child labour from entering Australia. A problem that continues to exist—in part due to the definition of 'slavery' used in the Modern Slavery Act, which the parliament passed in 2018—is that the commissioner will be operating under the definition of 'child slavery' which traps only 'the worst forms of child slavery', not all the forms of it. Article 3 of the International Labour Organization Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour includes, in part (d), 'work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children'.

After all these years of talk about child slavery and all these Australian government actions, these poor children are still digging up cobalt with their bare hands when they should be at school. The International Labour Organization has a far better definition of 'child labour', which my office is using. Their definition of 'child labour'—not child slave labour; it's more encompassing—is 'a child under 14 who misses school, or would miss school if it were available, in order to perform work'. So it is when work takes them out of school. That definition captures people who are caught in a never-ending cycle of poverty and misery, with children who are working to bring home a tiny income to support their families and who never receive the necessary education to break out of that cycle of poverty. They are trapped in poverty and misery for their very short lives. These children work until their bodies are broken, and then their children take their place. Child labour may provide large corporations with extra profits from cheap minerals, coffee and textiles, amongst others, yet it's just plain wrong. It is inhuman.

I framed my bill to relate to child labour only because the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023 has been on the drawing board for some time. My bill covers what this bill does not cover. Having seen the final version of this bill, I will provide the committee with an update on an amendment to my bill to allow the Anti-Slavery Commissioner to be the point of reporting of child labour on imported goods in addition to child slavery. One Nation will support this bill, and, as a servant of the people of Queensland, I will continue to pursue this issue.

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In prisons in this country, people are being used as slaves, working for little to no pay, all to drive further profits for big companies like Qantas and Bunnings. And governments are on the take from this labour exploitation too.

Modern slavery is a structural feature of the Australian economy as a result of systemic discrimination towards migrants and minority groups. We've heard about how people with working holiday visas, seasonal workers and international students have been subject to serious exploitation in Australia, with visa conditions that tie workers to their employers allowing employers to manipulate workers. This was the subject of an explosive 2015 Four Corners expose that proved that slave-like conditions have been rampant on Australian farms. Migrant workers aren't paid or are significantly underpaid, they're exploited by dodgy labour hire contractors, and many young women are being sexually harassed and forced to perform sexual favours in exchange for work or for visa extensions.

But today I want to talk about the history of colonial slave labour of First Peoples in this country and how this continues within Australian prisons to this day. Governments go to great lengths to hide what goes on in prisons. Prisons are used to disappear and dehumanise people and even exploit people's labour for private profit. In prisons in this country, people are being exploited under slave-like conditions. Each state and territory runs prison industry programs, with private companies paying prisoner workers significantly below the minimum wage, exploiting cheap labour for their private profit. This is a subject that demands our attention, our scrutiny and our action.

Many of you will be surprised to hear that Australia has the highest rate of incarceration in private, for-profit prisons in the world—even higher than the United States, your mates. But it is not just private, for-profit prisons that are exploiting people here; it is also state run prisons. Both private and public prisons have contracts with Australian corporations who are profiting from the use of slave-like labour and wage theft within prisons, exploiting prisoners for financial gain.

It's not straightforward to find out which companies because they're all shamed and hiding. Public institutions and state entities utilise and benefit from prison labour. It's shady stuff. Governments have gone to great lengths to hide which companies are involved, what work people are being made to do and how much, if anything, workers are paid. Governments don't want the people to know that this is even happening. However, piecing together what little information we do have paints a stark picture.

Over 42,000 people are jailed in Australian correctional centres, and many of them are working for as little as $2 an hour. The Australian minimum wage is $21.38 per hour. We know profit-gouging companies like Qantas and Bunnings have been using prison labour for various tasks, from refurbishing passenger headphones—you know the headphones you get on the plane; that's slave labour in prisons—to manufacturing nuts and bolts to put your stuff from Bunnings together. Despite many advocates shining a light on these practices, we still don't have proper transparency, with many companies refusing to confirm their involvement and governments refusing to give up the information.

Qantas—what hypocrites! They have an advertisement filled with black First Nations women singing, while the company hides the fact that First Nations women in prison are working for slave wages, untangling headphones used in flights. Shame! Hypocrisy! This country is no stranger to profiting from the slave labour of First Nations people. Legislation in almost every state and territory facilitated the enslavement of our people, who were subject to near total control of movement, over who they could marry or what jobs they could do. Our wages were stolen, our savings were taken, and our property was seized.

First Nations woman Ruby De Satge, speaking on the Queensland protection act, said:

… if you are sitting down minding your own business, a station manager can come up to you and say, 'I want a couple of blackfellows' … Just like picking up a cat or a dog.

Historians, including Dr Rosalind Kidd and Dr Thalia Anthony, have documented how First Peoples of all ages, including children, were forcibly sent to work, often far away from their home and families, in often horrific conditions. Boys were generally sent to work on pastoral properties, while girls worked as domestic servants. All were exposed to physical and sexual abuse. This government has unfinished business in repaying wages to Aboriginal and South Sea Islander slaves whose unpaid labour allowed big businesses to reap substantial profits and helped maintain the Australian economy through the Great Depression—riding on the backs of blacks. Shame!

Today, it is not just private enterprises reaping the benefits. State governments are complicit in the exploitation, with agencies like the New South Wales corrective services industry generating millions in revenue from prison labour. From building fire trucks and toolboxes to constructing prison cells, the scope of state involvement is extensive and concerning. The Western Australian government runs the Prisoner Employment Program, which offers paid employment to people in minimum-security prisons in sectors such as clothing, food, textiles and furniture for prisons. The private Acacia Prison, run by Serco, partners with private companies and contractors such as metal workshops and wood workshops. Serco has to pay the state government 10 per cent of its revenue from this prison work. Most recently, the company reported paying $110,011 to the Western Australian government, meaning its revenue from the prison labour was more than $1.2 million per year. Clearly they can afford to pay their workers more.

The impact of prison labour extends beyond economic exploitation. It affects the very fabric of our communities. Those in prison contribute to community projects, from maintaining racetracks to refurbishing public housing. But, while on the surface some of these might seem like good causes, that obscures the underlying issue of coerced labour within the prison system. Perhaps most insidious is the lack of accountability and oversight. Requests for data on the extent of prison labour have been repeatedly denied, kept hidden, practised in secrecy and shielding those who profit and enable this industry from accountability.

So what can we do about it? First, we need truth-telling—to talk about it more. We need to demand that companies and governments be transparent about their use of prison labour. Most importantly, we need to remember that everyone deserves to be treated fairly and with respect no matter their circumstances. I am asking that the government urgently refer the prison industry and the corporations known to use prison labour to the Fair Work Commission. This is what my amendment facilitates—that the Anti-Slavery Commissioner has the power to directly refer matters to the Fair Work Commission—and it demands that those who are working in prison are at the very least paid the minimum wage. I also call on the government to release the exact numbers and names of companies that employ prison labour in Australia, information which is currently unknown as requests for the data have been repeatedly denied by your agencies. This is the very least your government can do, and I foreshadow moving my second reading amendment on sheet 2613.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to make my contribution on the creation of the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023. I congratulate the Attorney-General on progressing this important reform and delivering on Labor's election commitment to add this important role to our response in combatting modern slavery. In welcoming this important reform, I have a request that the new Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner take a very, very close look at the operations of the many overseas crewed and flagged vessels that visit Australian ports. As colleagues are aware, modern slavery includes serious exploitative practices such as trafficking people, deceptive recruiting, forced labour and forced marriage. Unfortunately, forced labour is still used extensively in international shipping.

In fact, the International Transport Workers' Federation boarded a ship in Mackay earlier this month, following concerns about crew mistreatment, wage theft and deplorable conditions. The MV Eleen Sofia is registered in Liberia and is a flag-of-convenience ship—surprise, surprise. The ship has a shocking record. In February this year, the ITF boarded this same ship, the MV Eleen Sofia, when it was docked in Port Adelaide. Their main concerns at the time were overdue or unpaid wages and a lack of provisions—in other words, a lack of food for the crew. While the ITF fixed these issues at the time, they discovered exactly the same problem with the same ship when it pulled up alongside Mackay earlier this month.

Things are now so bad with the MV Eleen Sofia that the Australian Border Force relocated the vessel to Gladstone. You may well be wondering what a foreign flagged and crewed vessel has to do with Australian antislavery provisions. In addition to undertaking international voyages, this ship conducts coastal shipping between Australian ports under licence from the Australian government. Every time ITF inspectors board this ship at an Australian port, they find underpayment of workers and appalling conditions. When they boarded the ship in April this year, they found, as I said earlier, no food for the crew—think about that. The ITF, my mates, conducts inspections throughout Australia's mainland ports. These inspectors are led by former seafarer, MUA official and great mate of mine Ian Bray. Together, this team uncovered more than $30 million in stolen wages just last calendar year. Thirty-million dollars in unpaid wages is definitely something that the incoming Anti-Slavery Commissioner should focus on.

I had the great privilege of joining ITF inspectors in Melbourne in November last year as part of their week of action. Although I could only do the one day, it was great to join a wonderful human being, Christian Roos from the ITF in Belgium. Christian is an experienced ITF inspector and former seafarer. The week of action targeted shipowners and agents that systematically steal the wages of workers who transport more than 95 per cent of consumer goods that Australians rely on. The ship I boarded that day was a Chinese flag vessel with two extremely wonderful captains. They were really decent people. They opened up their books, welcomed us onboard and gave us access to everything. I tagged along. As someone who has done safety inspections in trucking yards, I did have a bit of an idea of what Christian might be looking for. But it opened my eyes. He checked out medicines and air conditioners to make sure everything was alright.

He went into the kitchen, and this was interesting. There was food in storage in the fridge. For starters, the fridge and the freezer both weren't working properly. Then we inspected food, and he was pulling out the vegetable trays. There was moss on the vegetables. The chef was like, 'Well, I'll just cut it off and keep cooking.' But this is the magnificent job they do, let alone chasing wages. Let's not forget: these poor devils can be stuck on these ships for nine months. It was a real eye-opener, and I congratulate Ian and ITF. Keep up the great work.

These workers, as I said before, are some of the most vulnerable. They often have their passports confiscated and are deprived of shore leave and decent accommodation. That's on top of their wages being stolen at times. At the moment, workers like those on the MV Eleen Sofia rely on ITF inspectors like Ian Bray and Christian Roos to make sure they get paid and get food to eat while they are away from home for up to nine months at a time. The ITF's recent, magnificent report, Nowhere to Hide, revealed that 70 per cent of ships carrying imports and exports onto our shores through our ports fail to meet international standards for wage payments. And yet, we don't think that's a drama. What a shocking system. But this has been around for years and years. I share the frustration here because I've been talking about this for years and years. That's why I urge the commissioner to work with the Fair Work Ombudsman and, of course, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to combat the scourge of modern slavery at our ports and in Australian waters. I commend this bill to the Senate.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak on the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023. It is with a great sense of pride that I do so as the minister that brought this legislation into this place. I think it's also a great day of pride for everybody in this chamber, because what people don't see is that there are many common causes that, on all sides of this chamber, we work together on. I see Minister McCarthy there, who started this journey with me and Chris Crewther to get up a parliamentary inquiry into the need for a modern slavery bill in this nation. It was an amazing, 12-month, multipartisan inquiry that led to this bill, which was introduced and has now made the milestone of being reviewed and expanded.

It will come as no surprise to anybody in this chamber that I am incredibly passionate about the serious and important issue of modern slavery. I'm passionate about it because, as a Liberal, there is no greater cause than individual freedoms, including the freedom from servitude and slavery. It's about people's individual freedoms and liberties. I am so proud to have been involved in this, and it is a cause that I still continue to champion globally and here in Australia.

This coordinated and multipartisan approach started with the Australian government's 2004 Action Plan to Eradicate Trafficking in Persons, which was released by then prime minister John Howard. In 2015 the action plan was succeeded by the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-19, which really laid out the framework for this current piece of legislation. As I said, in 2018, there was no prouder moment for me in this place than, as then Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, taking the first modern slavery legislation through this place. Those of you who were here at the time will know that it didn't have necessarily the smoothest of passages through this place. 'Modern slavery', at that point, was not a term that was well known in this country. Certainly, a lot of Australians didn't know that slavery existed in our own country and they weren't aware of their inadvertent contributions to slavery globally.

There were a lot of negotiations at that time. I was a little disappointed that Senator Sheldon's contribution had a go at the coalition, because we did the best that we could to get a bill through this place. There were compromises that were made then, including the establishment of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner. But, now that businesses understand what modern slavery is, they understand their reporting requirements and they understand the prevalence of slavery throughout their global supply chains, I think this is a bill whose time has come.

In that context, the bill initially was designed to help businesses better control their own risks and also focus on businesses in their supply chains who benefit from the servitude of others. It also, at the time and subsequent to that, shone a light on the slavery risks in our international supply chains, including our supply chains for critical minerals and rare earths. That's one aspect I'd like to focus on here in the chamber today. I'd ask colleagues to remember that the supply chains today for our clean, green—so-called—supply chains are riddled with the servitude and enslavement of millions of people globally, particularly in China.

I've had it suggested to me by some that the environment is the greater good and that we should not worry about the human servitude that is not just prevalent but endemic in the solar panels that we buy, in the wind turbines that we use, in electric vehicles, in batteries and in many other new energy technologies. This is something that I will be pursuing further this year. We cannot turn a blind eye. It's just the right thing to do. We should never, ever accept a single person being enslaved for the production of these goods.

There's also a huge commercial cost. These goods are produced cheaply because they are produced on the backs of women, children and men who have been denied their freedoms, and many of them are in bonded labour as well. We can't go green on the backs of these millions of men, women and children who are forced to mine the minerals and rare earths and fabricate components of the goods that I've talked about. This year, the challenge for us as a nation is to deal with both. How do we get to net zero and net zero technologies but not on the backs of these men and women?

The committee process for this legislation did take over 12 months, but it was a significant achievement. I would like to acknowledge all of those in this place and those who have now left this place who were involved. The committee's report was Hidden in plain sight. I think that accurately captured the nature of what we discovered through this process. We had 225 submissions, we had 10 public hearings and we received this amazing amount of evidence which clearly demonstrated that slavery was something we needed to deal with. As the report name suggests, modern slavery is hidden in plain sight, but quite often we just don't know what we're looking for or, when we see it, what we are looking at. These heinous crimes that are committed against 50 million people—50 million people are today enslaved—are mostly in our supply chains. There are more people in slavery, in servitude, in bonded labour and in child labour today than at any other time in our nation's history—in fact, in human history.

This again is quite a shocking situation, but all too often we can think, 'Well, it's not an Australian thing; we don't have slavery here.' Yes, we do, but what's worse is that we contribute to the enslavement of others overseas. Slavery comes in many forms, and one of the forms of slavery that I became aware of on a field trip to Cambodia in 2016 with Save the Children and other parliamentary colleagues is what's now called orphanage trafficking. It was absolutely shocking to realise that there were at least eight million children who had been trafficked into these congregate care institutions that were called orphanages when most of these children had parents. They had been removed from their families to scam money from us, from well-meaning church groups, from well-meaning social clubs, from well-meaning schools and from volunteers who come and have tourist experiences with children. It's hideous to think about.

That started a very long journey for me, here and globally, which still continues today. One of the things I am particularly proud of is that the Australian parliament led the way, because, in the Hidden in plain sight report, which led to this bill, Australia became the first parliament and then the first nation to recognise orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery. Australia still continues that work, and we're doing so on a bipartisan basis. I see Senator O'Neill here. She's been a wonderful support at the IPU and elsewhere on the matter of raising awareness and tackling orphanage trafficking. So thank you for that ongoing support.

One of the other things about modern slavery that is important to note in this place is that it distorts global markets, undercuts responsible business and can pose significant risk to entities that find themselves inadvertently benefiting from slavery practices at some point in the supply chain. I think most Australians who have solar panels on their house or who bought an EV that was made in China did so for all the right reasons. But it's most likely that they not only were made and assembled in Xinjiang but have components and minerals that come from other countries that have child labour and the most revolting environmental practices all the way through their supply chains. Australians don't realise this, but we, as a chamber and as people, have to highlight that so that we can change practices so that, when people purchase these goods, they don't purchase goods that are made off the backs of children, women and men who have been enslaved.

Sadly our region is also the global epicentre of modern slavery, with about two-thirds of victims right here in our region across the Asia-Pacific. One of the most egregious things about slavery is that this exploitation of people, this commoditisation of people, is a highly lucrative business. Not only does it provide those who manufacture the goods with slave labour and give them a competitive edge but it generates over US$200 billion a year. The commodification and the exploitation of people is a very lucrative business. We can change that. We can make change, and this legislation is a great vehicle for Australians to do that. But to start to do that we also have to realise the personal and the human cost of producing the things that we consume every day here in Australia, which come off the back of women and children.

I conclude by reflecting on the key pillars in our national strategy against modern slavery. There are five national strategic priorities that provide the foundation for our ongoing fight against modern slavery. The first is prevention. The second is a national strategic priority within the criminal justice system and criminal law: disrupt, investigate and prosecute modern slavery. Here in our nation—never mind overseas—we still have a long way to go to work with law enforcement and particularly border protection officials to actually recognise what slavery looks like, as people come through the borders: people who come through on legitimate visas, minors who come through accompanied by adults who are not their parents, and women who come through to work in the sex trade in Australia, and who are cycled through brothels on legitimate visas. We've still got a lot of work to do. The fourth national strategic priority is partnerships. This is not something the federal government can deal with on its own. It requires law enforcement, welfare agencies and victim protection organisations to understand what is required and to have the courage to work together to do that. The fifth national strategic priority is research. The five pillars were established in 2020 by the former coalition government, and they do provide a good framework. This is a proud coalition achievement.

I will finish by talking about something else that the coalition is very proud of: the first Magnitsky style thematic sanctions framework to hold to account perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses, particularly those involved in modern slavery practices. Let's call a spade a spade. We've got a tool that we introduced that we can use to highlight this. Let me again be very honest and clear. There are millions of these 50 million people enslaved in China today. They are in enormous detention facilities, primarily in Xinjiang. There are Uighurs. There are Tibetans who have been taken away from their families at a very young age and put into Han language boarding schools. In fact over 80 per cent of Tibetan children have now been removed from their families. They go into these education facilities. They lose their cultural identity, and then they get shipped into farms and factories, pretty much as indentured labour. There are also North Koreans provided by the North Korean government to China in bonded labour in servitude. What I would say to the government is that it is time to have a look at the powers that we have to call this behaviour out and say that it is not okay.

There is a lot more that we can do together. While there are many other things on our agenda, including net zero, let's strive for a future here. We can use this bill and the amendments in this bill to say that net zero is important, but so are the human lives of those who will build that new future.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Slavery is indeed an evil that, sadly, continues throughout the world right now—in this moment, on this very day. Millions and millions of people around the world, including Australians, are subject to servitude. Slavery is a concept that we think of as a long-ago phenomenon, and we seem somewhat blind to the reality that it didn't occur long ago in Egypt, nor did it finish with the change of legislation about slaves being units of labour in the United States of America. Slavery is with us, and it is amongst us here in our proud democratic nation of Australia in 2024. As I speak that sentence, I am both ashamed and despairing of some of the worst excesses of human nature that would ever think that enslaving another human being could ever be okay.

It's a matter of public knowledge now that I carry a couple of very important things on my person. One of them is a set of rosary beads, a symbol of my Catholic faith in which I find great comfort, and the other is the declaration of human rights. For me these two things are interconnected. People of faith, people of goodwill, people of no faith—we all share a common humanity. That is what is expressed in that declaration. It's human rights for everyone, manifesting itself in very different ways across the faith traditions and in the public practice of people of goodwill, regardless of whatever faith or philosophy they might adhere to.

Today in this debate we are talking about one of the most fundamental human rights. The reality is that when an individual is forced to work for another without payment, enslaved as an item of property for another individual—when one is denied agency—this at every turn is a severe breach of human rights. Fundamental rights, however, cannot be taken for granted. They have to be taught. They have to be cherished by every single person. Sadly, we are at a point where we need to legislate to clarify our actions around what we're going to do in response to this profound scourge.

The right to agency is vital. It aligns with my values and how I see the world—that enslavement should never be and that freedom is a fundamental right that should be practised in full, while being mindful of where it meets the freedoms of others. The belief in the right to agency and having the capacity to live your best life for the period of time that you're here on this planet in the great common family of humanity is part of the reason I became a teacher. This belief in the fundamental human rights of my fellow citizens of the world is another reason I come to this place as a parliamentarian to do this work of legislating where it is necessary, where we seem to have lost something in the broad compact about what common law and common good should look like.

'Modern' is a word with both connotation and denotation. Often we see it as a positive. Thoroughly Modern Millie was one of my favourite films that my mother showed me—great music, great dancing—where the sense of 'modern' was full of hope and promise. Sadly, when we talk about 'modern slavery', it is a term that has severe negative connotations because it covers an enormous range of exploitative practices, including human trafficking, slavery, forced labour, child labour, the removal of human organs and slavery-like practices that have been long documented as practices of commerce in days gone by and things that most of us would only have seen through the media or in film, or read in novels.

I want to acknowledge here the contribution of Senator Linda Reynolds, who referred to the work that she has done, in leading other parliamentarians at the International Parliamentary Union, in identifying the scourge of orphan trafficking and in addressing the very real challenge of the proper management of children in orphanages to be free and to not be enslaved and become units of commerce for those who would exploit them.

I think one of the saddest elements of modern slavery is that it reminds me once again of that very old adage that the love of money is the root of all evil. It's not money in and of itself. We know that charities that benefit from people supporting them do incredibly good work. Money in and of itself and profit in and of itself are not a problem. But gross misuse of the fundamental rights of others for personal profit and gain was always wrong, is always wrong, will always be wrong and must continue to be addressed in all its variations and forms by people of goodwill in parliaments around the globe.

I think part of the problem we face right now is that we live in a global economy and we're consuming so many products, services and goods that we don't know the origins of. Sadly the reality is that some of us will be consuming the products of slavery. I go to the Uighurs in Xinjiang Province in the People's Republic of China. It is now commonly known across the world that there are millions of people enslaved there. I've spoken with advocates for the freedom of those enslaved Uighurs in Xinjiang Province, who've indicated they're trying to use new technologies to identify the kind of weave of fabric so that we can begin to see where these materials are coming from and make informed decisions to ensure that we don't purchase the product of enslaved workforces.

Supply chains in their globalisation can be very powerful and very effective. We cannot undo them, nor should we, but they are opaque. In fact some companies, disreputably and with a love of money trumping any respect for the fundamental dignity of human beings, seek profit and absolutely and deliberately obscure the truth of where and how their products are being made, created and distributed. That's really why the bill that's been put forward is of vital importance. It's essential that Australia rises to the challenge that is before us and that we stand up for the rights to which we are committed.

Senator Reynolds mentioned the importance of the Magnitsky rules and laws around the world, and I want to give particular praise to our former colleague here in this place and my good friend former senator Kimberley Kitching for the great leadership that she showed in advancing our legislative endeavours to ensure that we had the Magnitsky sanctions at our fingertips when they were required. That is a sign of how important the work of individual senators can be, and how we as a parliament collectively and as a team of senators can act not only in the national interest but in the international interest with our fellow minded true believers in democracy.

I also want to echo the observation of Senator Reynolds with regard to the boarding school situation in Tibet—or in the province called Tibet that is now occupied by China. The boarding schools that exist there are absolutely enslaving young people in a way that robs them of their Tibetan heritage, their language and their history for what can only be considered political purposes and creates a potential workforce that I hope is not enslaved in the same way that we have seen amongst the Uighur population in another province of China.

It's very clear to me that, under the leadership of Anthony Albanese and this Labor government, Australia has absolutely returned to the world stage. When we come to the table to participate with other developed democracies to do our work alongside them in the interests of humanity, we have to make sure that our own house is in order. We have to practise what we preach otherwise our words mean nothing.

Sadly, in my work representing this great nation with my parliamentary colleagues from across the political divide, we've seen countries which, right now in these days, are seeking to declare themselves democratic states, and which use the language of democracy but are seeking to destabilise the fundamentals of rules based order that are expressed in the UN declaration of human rights. The geopolitical realities of our time are very, very challenging. Benignly believing that we can assert fundamental human rights and believing that freedom is held by every individual—even those in our own country—is a position I wish we could hold, but it is, sadly, not matching the reality.

The fight against slavery is occurring all around the world with many allies. Among those here in Australia, I want to particularly mention the Minderoo Foundation, which is seeking change. The modern slavery index is an important tool to measure and respond to slavery around the world. The scale of the problem before us is enormous. There were 50 million people estimated to be in modern slavery in 2021. The Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network is another organisation that shares the values which I've espoused and which I expect most Australians would share with me. The ACAN indicate that action against modern slavery is a fundamental Catholic social teaching. Pope Francis called modern slavery 'a crime against humanity' because that is what it is. He pledged with other global religious leaders to work to rid the world of this affront to human dignity and human freedom. I certainly support the network's mission to rid slavery from all Catholic supply chains and help to quash the evil of modern slavery.

Patron saint St Josephine Bakhita, born in Darfur, was sold into slavery at a young age. Before ending up in Italy in 1882, she was beaten and abused by her former masters. However, her arrival proved to be a profound change for her circumstances. She was entrusted by the Canossian Sisters, and, for the next 50 years, she enacted God's love through cooking, sewing, embroidery and attending to the door. During her last days, she relived the painful days of her slavery more than once and begged, 'Please loosen the chains; they are heavy.' Surrounded by the sisters, she died on 8 February 1947, and 8 February has been designated as a day of prayer, reflection and action to end the injustice of human trafficking. I'm proud of the Australian government for taking this action. Today I feel my morals, my creed and my identity, as a person of faith and as a citizen of the world who supports the United Nations in its work and the fundamentals embedded in the declaration of human rights, are combined in this bill. I came to the parliament to make change and, ultimately, to be a force for good in this world. This piece of legislation is an example of the way in which our parliament can work harmoniously and powerfully to deliver public benefit for the common good here in our country and in other jurisdictions.

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

I thank all honourable senators who've contributed to this debate on the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023. I would also like to thank the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for its consideration of the bill. The government has moved amendments to the bill to fully implement the committee's recommendations, and has moved amendments to the explanatory memorandum to address some of the additional comments arising from the committee's inquiry.

The bill would not be possible without the work and engagement of victims and survivors of modern slavery, and civil society and business stakeholders who have campaigned over many years for the establishment of the first Commonwealth Anti-Slavery Commissioner, and I want to acknowledge all of these individuals and organisations. The bill delivers on the Albanese government's election commitment to establish a Commonwealth anti-slavery commissioner. Modern slavery is among the most egregious forms of human rights abuses and deprives victims of their dignity, fundamental rights and freedoms. We know that modern slavery occurs in the Australian community. We have heard cases of domestic servitude, individuals trafficked into sex work and a young girl at risk of being sent overseas for a forced marriage. In January this year a Melbourne man was sentenced to three years and six months imprisonment for forced labour offences after he forced a person to work in his confectionary shop. There is no place for modern slavery in any form in the Australian community.

To strengthen Australia's response to modern slavery, this bill amends the Modern Slavery Act to establish Australia's first Commonwealth Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The recent review of the Modern Slavery Act verified the long-identified need for an independent specialist commissioner to enhance our response. This bill establishes the commissioner. The bill confers important functions of the commissioner. The commissioner will support, engage and empower victims and survivors of modern slavery. The commissioner will provide targeted support to businesses in Australia to help them address risks of modern slavery practices in their operations and supply chains. To ensure we, as the government, can continue to lead by example, the commissioner will advocate for continuous improvement in policy and practice. The commissioner will be independent and will have discretion in performing or exercising their functions. The government thanks the Senate committee for the inquiry into this bill and for their recommendations.

The government accepts the committee's recommendations 1 to 4 and welcomes the committee's fifth recommendation: that the bill be passed, subject to the implementation of the recommendations. The recommendations will be actioned through government amendments to this bill. These include: implementing recommendation 1 by clarifying the application of the definition of 'sensitive information' in the bill; implementing recommendation 2 by specifying that a principal objective of the commissioner's strategic plan must include development of guidance to support victims and survivors of modern slavery; implementing recommendation 3 by requiring the commissioner to engage with victims of modern slavery in carrying out their functions; and implementing recommendation 4 by clarifying in legislation that the commissioner is able to refer matters for investigation to relevant Commonwealth government agencies, including to law enforcement agencies, so potential modern slavery matters can be dealt with appropriately.

The government will also support the amendments proposed by Senator Cash. I would like to thank the opposition for working collaboratively with us on this bill. I acknowledge there have been calls for the commissioner to do more, including to undertake investigations, to compel business to cooperate and to issue penalties for noncompliance. The government is currently considering options to further strengthen the Modern Slavery Act that may inform consideration of the commissioner's future role. However, this bill focuses on critical, core functions of the commissioner that will set a foundation for further action in Australia.

The establishment of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner is an important reform. The commissioner will be a powerful and effective force for change in Australia. I table an addendum to the explanatory memorandum relating to the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023. The addendum responds to matters raised by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. I also table a supplementary explanatory memorandum relating to the government amendments to be moved on this bill.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the second reading amendment moved by Senator Shoebridge on sheet 2594 be agreed to.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the second reading amendment on sheet 2613, as moved by Senator Thorpe, be agreed to.