Roundtable on Strengthening Australia’s Criminal Justice Response to Modern Slavery

Hi, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here in front of you.

This reflection explores the role and importance of lived experience advocacy, including the motivations for participating in advocacy work, the value of sharing lived experience perspectives, and the potential impact that advocacy can have on individuals, communities, and services.

I will reflect on the reasons people like me choose to engage in advocacy, the outcomes that can be achieved through public engagement and media involvement, and the contribution that lived experience voices can make in promoting awareness, understanding, and positive change.

I have chosen 2 quotes from the Australian Institute of Criminology report.

The first quote is from lived experience consultation 4:

"I was so lucky. [The AFP] were really good … I think they did very well and they explained everything very well and then every step they took, they explained … what we are going to do next."

This quote resonates with me because it reflects my experiences. It allowed me to share the same experience and deliver it to you.

The second quote is from lived experience consultation 22:

"More help around long-term planning would have been useful—like clearer guidance on my visa options or how to access mental health support beyond the crisis stage. Sometimes it felt like I didn't know what steps to take next once the immediate help was given. Having that kind of roadmap could've made things less overwhelming."

This quote captures the feeling of not being alone in thinking it was just me who is undergoing the mental health battle after the trauma, which affects one's life, my life.

Going back on my experience, I can say that I am lucky too to receive the protection and support that I needed the most during my hardest time of uncertainty and fear. The beginning was hard, but I was able to get up and move forward because of the assistance and encouragement throughout the journey. It made me feel in control of myself and overcome the terror within me. However, not all victims and survivors are able to experience that. Some had experienced the worst that made them more traumatized. The feeling of being secured and protected vanished and silenced them instead of speaking out. I am hoping that unified action and a shared understanding of modern slavery will be strengthened across all agencies and organizations to better meet what the victims need in their trying times.

STPP (Support for Trafficked People Program) assisted me in all ways that they could on my journey until it ended. But I realized that long- term support could be more beneficial to all survivors since the trauma does not just end when the case has been finalized. The trauma lingers emotionally and mentally, which affects every survivor for their whole life, especially in building connections with new people. It will always be considered a scar that will never be erased and forever be part of our lives. I believe that a long-term planning is a big step in reaching out to victims and survivors, especially in taking care the mental wellness of the survivor, and ensuring trauma is managed that it does not affect their daily lives.

These experiences made me speak out as lived experience advisor, so that I can contribute to the development of the system based on what I have been through. A recovery system, not just during the exploitation, but also afterwards once the program has finished. I hope my story will be a bridge for survivors and victims' to be heard and that services will be more accessible and trauma-responsive in rebuilding their lives.

Belle (name has been changed for confidentiality)

Lived Experience Advisor, Office of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner

Thank you.

The quote I am sharing today, noted in the report as from lived experience consultation 3, I am reading on behalf of another survivor who was unable to be here to speak today, they bravely shared with me how this particular quote resonated with their own experience in seeing modern slavery first hand, while having their concerns for the other survivor ignored.

The quote is as follows:

"I made two calls on the 131 AFP number and the frontline workers, they were not trained to take reports of modern slavery … They didn't really know what I was talking about. Then they forced me to the online form … However, I was very overwhelmed with the situation … The web form wasn't that user friendly … When you are either the victim or someone advocating for the victim, if they are in that deep trauma, it's very hard to put it in words … It's unrealistic to expect a victim to go online and do that … Then what if they have restricted internet access, or they have surveillance on them? So there's a mismatch there … I was like, I don't even know where this web form lands, if someone's going to look at it or not."

Personal Reflections

While I was reading this report, highlighting some sections, rereading others, sitting with the gravity of the information that has come together, I thought about what a significant and important moment this would be.

What a special moment today is.

All of us.
In this room.
Together.

As I was reading, I thought really carefully about what reflections I hoped to share with you today.

I thought about it really hard for many reasons, but one of those was, because I want you to know that this room matters too.

It matters to me.

It matters to you too, because otherwise you wouldn't be here.

But it matters to so many people who won't get to be in this room today, but whose words are in this report and whose lives will forever be impacted by what you choose to take away from it.

And, when I look around this room, I feel hope. Because this, as far as I understand, this is the first time in Australian history that we have had this level of opportunity to come together.

As I was reading this report, I realised there are moments in my life reflected within these pages, and I think that this is an important reflection I hoped to share today – to share that I have been personally part of some of these moments, conversations, and experiences that now exist within statistics, findings, recommendations, and research. They matter.

Including speaking with the United Nations Special Rapporteur during his last visit to Australia.

There is something confronting about reading statistics and realising; sometimes, that statistic is you.

When I was 15/16, pregnant, homeless, scared, trying to survive, I remember very vividly thinking and outwardly saying that "I don't want to become a statistic."

It feels a little ironic thinking about that now.

But I can also tell you there was a moment during that conversation with the Special Rapporteur that changed my life.

After sharing my experiences, I looked up to see tears in his eyes, and he said "What you have described is clear modern slavery in Australia. I am so sorry for what you and your children experienced."

And for the first time, I realised the thing I had been searching for was not only support.

It was language. It was understanding. It was a framework that could explain the interconnected patterns that existing systems had only ever treated as separate forms of harm.

That moment was not noted in his report, and it's not in this report either, because I was the one who lived it. Which is why I want to explain that simply seeing in the report from the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, a sentence that indicated further concerns that children in such situations would trigger mandatory reporting to state and territory child protection services, however, the responses are reportedly limited in many cases, means so much more than a sentence on a page. Instead, it reminds me that, that moment which changed so much for me, that had only been experienced by me, is now something I've shared with you. Something I hope adds more meaning into each word and sentence you read in this report.

Because I wonder if one moment like mine exists within these pages, then I can only imagine the many more moments, stories, and lives sit behind every statistic in this report that are untold.

And then I reached the references section.

Eighty-three references.

Eighty-three references to pieces of evidence, of research, consultations, inquiries, submissions, and lived realities that sit behind the findings.

And I could not stop thinking about how many people exist behind those 83 references.

People who were identified.
People who might have been missed.
People who survived, or who might still be trying to survive right now.

The people behind every finding & every recommendation in this report.

Because modern slavery rarely presents neatly in lived reality and often presents through overlapping vulnerabilities.

And that is one of the most important reflections I am grateful I can share in this room today.

Which means strengthening Australia's criminal justice response is not only about legislation, prosecutions, or processes.

It is also about the reality of every individual, about language that builds recognition systematically and socially, and trust that in turn builds into safety so together we build coordination.

And I think that creates an important challenge and opportunity for all of us lucky enough to be in this room today.

Matilda Constable-Webb

Lived Experience Advisor, Office of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner