Forced labour risk in Australia demands a systemic response

Australia's workplace protections are failing to reach many of the workers most vulnerable to forced labour, Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Chris Evans, said on Thursday 8 October in his speech at the 33rd Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture at the University of Sydney Business School.

In the lecture, Addressing Forced Labour Risks in a Changing Global Economy, the Commissioner said temporary migration, labour hire, subcontracting and other fragmented forms of work have left many workers at the margins of systems designed to protect them. He said Australia has built many of the right tools, but workplace regulation, migration policy, corporate accountability and criminal enforcement are not working in concert.

"Exploitation is rarely an isolated incident. It begins when normal protections stop working, when workers become less visible and responsibility becomes fragmented," the Commissioner said.

The Migrant Justice Institute's Off the Books report, a survey of almost 10,000 temporary migrant workers, found two-thirds were paid less than they were lawfully owed and more than one-third reported at least one indicator of forced labour.

"This is vulnerability at scale, produced by the interaction of insecure work, labour market structures and migration settings," the Commissioner said. He added that the research points to a deeper, systemic problem, with temporary migrant workers in effect treated as a second class in our workforce.

With the Government moving to strengthen modern slavery laws, the Commissioner called for a mandatory due diligence obligation, requiring large businesses to identify and act on modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, alongside national or nationally harmonised labour hire licensing and stronger action on sham contracting.

"The foundation of meaningful reform must be mandatory modern slavery due diligence for all reporting entities, including the Government, overseen by a responsive regulator and supported by pathways to remedy. Of all the tools available, due diligence has the greatest potential to drive lasting behavioural change and deliver outcomes for workers," the Commissioner said.

"The problem is systemic and a systemic problem requires a systemic response – one where policy responses work together, not in silos. Australia prides itself on being the country of the fair go. If it's not a fair go for all, it's simply a story we tell ourselves."

View the Commissioner's Speech at the 33rd Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture