TRANSCRIPT
Moe Turaga still recalls the immense hurt he felt upon discovering he was being exploited for work.
The 55-year-old came to Australia when he was just 17 years old in 1988, hoping to support his mother financially who was struggling after his father had died.
He followed advice from a family member in Fiji who encouraged Moe and his cousins to work on a farm in Victoria run by other family members.
"And I took that opportunity up with it. And other cousins, we paid for own passports, and we looked for money for that. And then he organised the visa, then organised our travel over to Sydney when the time came. And then he told us that there was a debt to be paid for our travel cost, our visa cost. Yeah. So, we thought we were doing the right thing with, there was no kind of sign to tell us that we were in an unsafe situation. It was a family member, respected member of family, religious as well."
It wasn't until two and a half years later that Moe realised none of the money he was working for was being received by his mother back in Fiji.
Moe eventually shared his experience with a friend at his church who offered Moe and his cousins work at her farm.
But he says his experience of debt slavery was met with stress and shame.
"The first question that my mum asked me, was he going to ever to send any money? Those days there was limited way of communication and just imagine two and a half years what mums do think about where their kids are. So that kind of hurt when mum asked that question. It's that stress. It's that shame as well. That's stigma. Yeah, and there were the potent moments when we thought that struggles, we expect we were expecting to live on $9 a week or $11 a week so that our families can do better. And having all that sacrifices in Victoria, thinking that our abilities were getting better use back at home."
Thirty years later, these practices of modern slavery are still happening in Australia.
The Attorney General's Department defines modern slavery as situations where offenders use coercion, threats or deception to exploit victims and undermine their freedom.
A landmark modern slavery report, by the New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner Dr James Cockayne, has exposed practices of exploitation suffered by temporary migrant workers in rural and regional parts of the state.
It found that temporary workers in agriculture, horticulture and meat processing industries were confronting modern slavery risks, including debt bondage, deceptive recruiting, forced labour and, in extreme cases, servitude, sexual servitude and even human trafficking.
Pacific workers and backpackers, or working holiday makers, were found to be particularly vulnerable to modern slavery risks.
This could include anything from poor working conditions, wage exploitation, inadequate or unsafe accommodation, gendered violence and limited healthcare access, as well as social isolation.
Sophia Kagan is Principal Policy Adviser on Labour Migration at the Office of the New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner, and co-author of the report.
She says while the majority of migrant workers have positive experiences in Australia, it's alarming to hear about these disturbing experiences.
"Some of these circumstances do give rise to issues of modern slavery, including, for example, forced labour, deceptive recruitment, debt bondage, and even in some cases sexual servitude and labour trafficking. But these are important and complex issues that require more of an investigative approach. And this is why our primary recommendation is for a formal inquiry into these issues."
Pacific Australia Labour Mobility workers, or PALM workers, arrive for work in Australia from Pacific Island nations and Timor-Leste for periods of between 6 months and 4 years.
These workers were noted as particularly vulnerable to exploitation as many fear reporting incidents due to a distrust of government authorities and a lack of cultural awareness on the part of employers.
For many, the cost-benefit analysis of lodging a complaint is simply not worth the risk of losing their visa.
This can lead to PALM workers being disengaged from their scheme and in turn becoming at greater risk to modern slavery due to loss of access to essentials such as income, food and healthcare.
Ken Dachi is Multicultural Affairs Advisor and Program Coordinator at Leeton Shire Council - and has witnessed these issues in his Riverina Region in New South Wales.
"Now when you have disengagement from that state program, then none of those visas that you supply someone is completely out of status. And if you look for support agencies to try and address issues of vulnerability across that visa category, there are none. You find supports for other visa categories. But when you have vulnerability on this one particular visa category, there's just zero support. And we haven't relied on volunteers faith groups, who essentially don't have limitless resources to provide supports."
He adds limited information on workers arriving in Australia also leaves them vulnerable to receiving inadequate support - and the burden then falls on small community organisations.
"You have situations where you receive workers, but you just do not know what nationalities they are, what languages they speak, when they're due to arrive, who's responsible for what. Then it finds most community groups, including local government being very reactionary in its approaches, especially when there are poor outcomes for the safe workers. So, when they fall in through the cracks and may require support with Medicare, may require support with housing. Getting that investigative piece where you have the nursery information to know how best to support anyone has become a huge challenge."
As a survivor-advocate, Moe says it's shameful to see these practices still occurring in Australia.
"It's a shame. As an Islander myself, I feel shameful that this is happening to my people and to see it 30 years later still happening, still thick, we're still accepting it as a community. We're still accepting it. As citizens, we're still accepting it that we can enslave a group of people. When I look at it, the benefit government, the local economy, governments, the local council, governments, the state governments benefits. The only person that's not benefiting out of this is the worker that we call neighbours that's coming into our space, and then this is how we treat them."
As Sophia mentioned earlier, one of the report's key recommendations is for a trauma-informed investigation into modern slavery risks - which does not fall under the powers of Anti-slavery Commissioner Dr James Cockayne.
But the federal government also has a role to play.
The report notes that there is no social safety net for these workers, who are not entitled to government supports like Medicare.
It recommends that the New South Wales government advocate for the federal government to review visa settings and protection requirements for temporary workers.
The Federal Department of Home Affairs was contacted for comment.
Ms Kagan explains how PALM workers should be eligible to change employers if they are being exploited, rather than being tied for up to 4 years with the same employer, and also calls to remove the specified work rule for working holiday makers which requires that workers complete the same number of normal work days or shifts that a full-time employee in that role would work in a 3 month or 6 month period.
An inability to access Medicare can have dire consequences for these workers, as Ms Kagan explains.
"Although these are workers that pay taxes, they are not eligible, and this can result in a number of challenges, including, as I mentioned, pregnant workers not being able to access antenatal services along with a range of other social safety nets that are available to Australian and permanent residents."
Dr Joe McGirr is Chair of the New South Wales Parliament’s Modern Slavery Committee and Member for Wagga Wagga.
He says the New South Wales government must enact recommendations made in the report around appropriate training and community support.
"As a country, we pride ourselves on giving people a fair go. We welcome temporary migrants. They're a critical part of our workforce, especially in rural regional Australia, and I'm devastated to think that some of them are just not getting treated worse than that. That we may have the potential for some to be effectively in modern slavery. So, we need to make sure that our frontline staff are aware of these issues and on the lookout for them. And so we need to give them that training. And I think we actually need to make sure that the people on the ground who are looking after, many people in this situation have the resources and the backup that they need. So, there are some concrete actions the state government could take."
Survivor-advocates like Moe have a message for Australian governments.
"Come back and listen to people with live experienced and be worker centric. Let's get the worker voice back up at the front. So, we are not eating blood meats, we're not eating blood vegetables, we're not eating blood fruits. We can share our hospitals. We can share our basic healthcare needs. We can share our educational system. These are our neighbours. If they come and ask for salt, let's give them salt. Come and ask for pepper. Let's give them pepper. It's nice to be kind."
