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.
And earlier this month, The ABC reported that Australia’s horticulture industry is at the centre of yet another migrant slave scandal, according to an Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into the issue.
Now, the same Parliamentary Inquiry has been told by an undercover Malaysian journalist that foreign workers in Victoria were “brainwashed” and trapped in debt to keep them on farms. From The Guardian:
Saiful Hasam, a reporter with Utusan Malaysia, gave evidence to a modern slavery inquiry on Monday, speaking of the “thousand sad stories” he heard during his two weeks at a fruit farm in Swan Hill, in northern Victoria.
Fruit pickers, often working illegally, were lured to Australia with promises of high incomes, Hasam said. When they arrived, they were paid a pittance, kept in overcrowded homes with exorbitant rent and effectively trapped in debt bondage.
Hasam warned the inquiry the exploitation was still occurring on a significant scale.
Hasam arrived in Australia last year, posing as a fruit picker who was prepared to work illegally.
He was paid $110 for 24 hours work over four days. About $80 went to pay rent in a small home he shared with 11 other workers, mostly from Malaysia. He was short-changed $10 by his contractor, leaving him with just $20.
“The story is basically the same, the sad story,” Hasam said.
I have said it before and I will say it again: there are now entire business lines, firms and sectors across Australia 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?
