Since the 7-Eleven migrant worker scandal broke in 2015, there has been a regular flow of stories emerging about the systemic abuse of Australia’s various migrant worker programs.
The issue culminated last year when the Senate Education and Employment References Committee released a scathing report entitled A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders, which documented the abuses of Australia’s temporary visa system for foreign workers.
The most damning assessments from the Committee were regarding Australia’s Working Holiday Maker and student visa holders, who were “consistently reported to suffer widespread exploitation in the Australian workforce”.
Back in June, ABC’s 7.30 Report ran a disturbing segment on the modern day slavery occurring across Australia:
LINDA REYNOLDS, LIBERAL SENATOR: Slaves are hidden in plain sight, right across Australia, so whether it’s out on a farm, you know, in regional Australia.
LISA SINGH, LABOR SENATOR: It could be domestic workers, it could be forced labour, of course it could be women and young girls in the sex industry…
JENNY STANGER, SALVATION ARMY: I don’t think we have really scratched the surface of what’s out there. I don’t know that we’ve been willing to actually acknowledge the scale and scope of what’s probably out there in the community…
7.30 REPORT EXCERPT: This is a massive black economy which is a huge part of Australia’s underground economy and, of course, some of these workers are part of industry, the food industries, that are supplying some of the biggest supermarkets in Australia…
Meanwhile, Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), Natalie James, told Fairfax in August that people on visas continue to be exploited at an alarming rate, particularly those with limited English-language skills. It was also revealed that foreign workers are involved in more than three-quarters of legal cases initiated by the FWO against unscrupulous employers.
Today, The ABC reports that Australia’s horticulture industry is at the centre of yet another migrant slave scandal, according to an Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into the issue:
The inquiry is nearing completion with the one and only regional hearing at Mildura, in Victoria, to be held on October 30 and a report slated to be released in November.
A UK authority has urged Australia to adopt a licensing system for labour hire companies and to provide broader investigative powers to the Fair Work Authority…
“Paul” was lured to Cairns from Papua New Guinea, with the promise of a TAFE education and good work but was conned by a Far North Queensland banana farmer.
“I was working 6:00am to 6:00pm driving tractors and eating bread and cordial for breakfast and lunch, and boiled mince meat for dinner. I lived in the shed with a dog,” he said.
He did not see a cent in pay and instead, when Paul asked the farmer for his pay, he was told it was being saved up to pay for the TAFE course.After six months Paul discovered dozens of other foreign workers on the farm in the same trouble.
“I drove the tractor over to the other side of the farm to where I knew a Fijian worker was and he told me he’d been there seven years,” he said…
Paul managed to escape and in June 2016 banana farmer Sona Singh Bhela of Cairns was jailed for three and a half years for a visa scam involving 43 Punjabi migrants.
But Paul’s troubles were not over. He arrived in Mildura, western Victoria, to work on a dozen farms in the district.
Living in squalid, cramped conditions, his pay was less than a tenth of the legal wage…
There is hope such debt bondage as Paul experienced will be stamped out if Australia adopts a Modern Slavery Act.
Giving evidence to an Australian Parliamentary Inquiry looking at a possible Act, the UK-based Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) said Australia should adopt consistent regulation of labour hire contractors across industries and state borders.
The sad reality is that there are now entire business lines, firms and sectors whose business models rely heavily on the systematic undermining of wages and, worse, running virtual slave labour.
We have seen this in fast food, convenience stores, agriculture, building, accounting, IT, engineering, education, transport, the gig economy and no doubt it is even more widespread.
The Senate report on the exploitation of temporary foreign workers was released in March 2016, and yet 19 months later there has been minimal action from the federal government, with widespread rorting of Australia’s visa program continuing unabated.
How many more examples do we need before our politicians take action and close down the various avenues to exploitation?
