True Test of Antislavery Initiatives is Not Simply to Do, but to Do the Right Thing and to Do It Fully
Earlier this month, The Salvation Army’s Freedom Partnership to End Modern Slavery and Andrew Forrest’s Walk Free Foundation brought 18 faith leaders together to launch the Australian Freedom Network at Parliament House. Leaders from multiple faiths, including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, signed the Joint Declaration to End Modern Slavery held in the same book as the signatures of world leaders of faith who launched the Global Freedom Network one year ago.
The launch was an enormous success, but not without its challenges. Aligning the calendars of faith leaders from across the country was no easy task. We heard the story of Andrew Forrest’s staff flying from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney in 24 hours to gather signatures from leaders who could not attend on the day. Returning from Canberra to Sydney, the Grand Mufti himself agreed to a midnight rendezvous to sign the Declaration on a specially-constructed table at a petrol station along the Hume Highway. It would be difficult not to be moved by the significance of the occasion and I was heartened to hear many leaders emphasise the need to translate the Declaration into measurable action.
In addition to the commitment shown by so many faith leaders, we also heard supportive messages from Australian parliamentarians. In reflecting on their comments, a few stood out. In outlining the Government’s actions to address modern slavery, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells stated: “The effectiveness of Australia’s response to human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices is due to close co-operation between government and our community partners.” The National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery is the mechanism for this cooperation, bringing key stakeholders from civil society, government and law enforcement together semi-annually to assess and progress actions in the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery. I attend these meetings on behalf of the Freedom Partnership and have observed them to be an increasingly useful forum for strategic debate about how to improve Australia’s antislavery framework.
That said, we cannot effectively address slavery through cooperation at the strategic level only. We need cooperation at the coal face. Indeed, this is emphasised as best practice by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and many others on the basis that engagement with NGOs helps to identify and stabilise victims and break down the barriers many experience to engaging in the criminal justice process.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Foreign Minister, Tanya Plibersek emphasised that addressing slavery is not just a legal imperative, but also a moral imperative. She raised the timely issue of supply chains, referring to past and current Governments’ commitment to rid government procurement of goods and services with high risk of slavery.
Though it took a while to get off the ground, the National Roundtable’s Supply Chains Working Group has accomplished a great deal this year. Its ultimate success, however, relies heavily on the support of a range of Government departments to take real and measurable action. Success also depends on resolving persistent and pervasive problems associated with Australia’s unregulated labour hire industry.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop endorsed the Australian Freedom Network three times in her remarks. I took from this a firm appreciation for and validation of the need to extend antislavery activities beyond the current framework, which remains highly federalised. Our National Action Plan rightly articulates the important role of and the need to engage with civil society and state, territory and local governments. The Plan would be improved with a strengthened articulation of the role of ordinary Australians and how communities, including those whose identity is drawn by faith, may become active participants in the national antislavery response.
I was grateful to hear Louise Markus, Member for Macquarie and our gracious host for the day, acknowledge the need to protect workers who are vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking. She also acknowledged the role Taskforce Cadena, the Government’s new multi-agency response to addressing fraud and exploitation in temporary work programs, has to address trafficking. It is absolutely critical that policymakers appreciate the connection between exploitation and trafficking. And in the absence of tailor-made anti-trafficking taskforces, Taskforce Cadena must include appropriate protocols for screening and supporting potential victims of this crime.
Finally, Richard DiNatale, Leader of the Greens, noted that whilst we have made great progress, we have to do more to identify and protect victims. He stated: “It is critical that the victims of these human rights abuses have the confidence, support and protection they need when they are finally able to speak out”. Indeed, we cannot hope to end slavery in Australia if victims do not feel safe to come forward. And yet, despite the best of intentions, policy makers continue to support “stick” measures that focus on compliance and penalisation without testing for adverse outcomes on the most vulnerable.
We wrongly assume that creating more penalties for the “bad guy” automatically translates to more safety for the “good guy”. We wrongly assume that victims will behave in a “victim-like” way and will thus be easy to protect from any adverse outcomes. We wrongly assume that if people know their rights, they will exercise them. What this logic fails to comprehend is the complex and coercive relationship between a trafficker and his or her victim. When we use language like “Government targeting unlawful workers”, a trafficker says to the victim: “See? You are unlawful. If you talk, you will be targeted, fined and deported. Then where will you hide?” I once assisted a survivor whose trafficker told her “dogs have more rights in this country than you.”
It is time to seriously consider if our messaging is actually serving the interests of human traffickers and unscrupulous employers. It is time to assess if the current approach to addressing fraud and exploitation in temporary work programs is having deleterious effects, not only on exploited workers, but also on our ability to identify and support victims of modern slavery, the numbers of which remain extremely low. Some might argue this indicates Australia does not have a significant problem. I would assert that you cannot conclude there is no problem if you have not truly looked.
The common thread in remarks from last week’s launch is the imperative to consider whether we have gone far enough to declare success. In noting Australia’s strong antislavery foundation and progress, I am sure I heard all parliamentarians assert that we still have much more to do. I was encouraged to hear this, but the true test will not be simply to do, but to do the right thing: to work together at all levels of the antislavery response; to hold our Government and ourselves accountable to the commitments we have made; to diversify and invigorate the work so more people are aware of the impact they can have and are supported to take action; to design and implement anti-exploitation frameworks in a victim-centred (not just offender-centred) manner; and to test our assumptions and methods for unintended, adverse outcomes on those most vulnerable. Only then can we be satisfied that we have done enough.