TRANSCRIPT
“For that to happen, you know it broke us, the whole feeling of shame, anger, despair, and all that sort of stuff, and not knowing what to do as well, that was the biggest thing, that we don't know what to do.”
That's modern slavery survivor and advocate Moe Turaga.
He grew up in Fiji and came to Australia in the late 1980s to work in agriculture, hoping to send money home to his family.
It was more than two years before he learned that hadn't happened.
“Back in those days, we were pretty isolated, so there's no mobile phones, you know. If we were lucky to walk probably about an hour and a half to a public telephone, to try and talk to our families back home. And we were pretty new as well to Australia, we didn't know what was the go here in Australia, what was the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do. We had the opportunity to come to church on a Sunday, one Sunday, where we found the phone then. I suppose the struggle was hearing my mum ask the question: are you ever going to send any money home?”
A labour hire operator had organised for him to work on the farm, along with nine other relatives. Moe says he took charge of their passports ... and stole their money.
This kind of exploitation is now in the spotlight as the New South Wales parliament launches an inquiry into modern slavery in the agriculture, horticulture and meat processing industries.
Here's New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner Dr James Cockayne.
“What we're seeing from our reports all across the state is that there is a percentage of temporary migrant workers, particularly in rural and regional New South Wales who are suffering conditions that would amount to forced labour, debt bondage, sex recruiting, and in some cases even sexual servitude.”
Commissioner Cockayne says surveys suggest as many as 16,400 people living in New South Wales have experienced modern slavery, either in New South Wales, interstate or overseas.
The Australian Pacific Labour Migration Scheme - or PALM - is a particular focus for the people working to prevent exploitation.
The scheme was brought in during COVID-19 to fill labour shortages in farm and food processing industries.
Since then it has grown fast.
Dr Morgan Harrington examined the scheme in a report he helped author for progressive think tank, The Australia Institute.
“In our research, we found that in 2019 there were just under 6,000 people from Pacific Island Nations participating in the two programmes that preceded the PALM scheme. And since then it's grown to just over 30,000 at the end of 2023. We know that there has been a slight uptick since then, and the Commonwealth government has announced that a very similar programme will be introduced for workers from Vietnam. So instead of the PALM will have the VALM. So there's every expectation that the programme will continue to expand.”
Dr Harrington says PALM scheme workers make up around 10 per cent of Australia's agricultural workforce, and nearly one quarter of those in the meat processing sector.
Jonathon Cook represents many of these workers, as the National Organiser for agriculture, horticulture and pastoral workers at the Australian Workers Union.
He says that the PALM Scheme has had a positive impact overall, and generally improved working conditions, but problems remain.
“For PALM workers specifically, we have heard a lot of concern about issues in the workplace around underpayment, very low piece rates, things that are against the award, people who have very high deductions for their accommodation, their transportation, their healthcare, which just eats away at their ability to earn. And ultimately you are really far away from your family, you're dislocated from your social networks, you're in a regional or remote location, you're doing extremely long days. And what they find is that the money that they earn is eaten away by all the expenses that are imposed on them in the scheme.”
Moe Turaga explains how deductions for accommodation, food, and services such as laundry can leave workers with little money in their take-home pay.
“Some of these workers that I deal with at the moment that are coming from, at the moment, are working for $800 a week, they just come here into Australia and $600 of that is being deducted and they expected to live on $200 per week to fund their family here themselves here and fund their families back in the countries that they come from.”
The scheme also makes it difficult for workers to change employers - a situation Commissioner Cockayne says makes it harder to escape exploitation.
“So at the moment, under the PALM scheme, workers come in and they're tied to a particular employer for either nine months or even up to four years if they're on a longer term basis. And that's a very long time for anybody to be dependent on an employer. If we are going to leave workers tied to a particular employer for that long, we need to be really very sure that our grievance mechanisms are effective and safe. And at the moment, there's a lot of practical problems with those.”
One issue is difficulty accessing translation services, another, lack of access to medical care.
And where workers drop out of the scheme because of mistreatment, things can get even worse.
“When they disengage, they then become actually more vulnerable to exploitation. They often lose access to their accommodation, so they end up sleeping rough. In Griffith and Leeton, we've heard that civil society organisations support these kinds of people have not just run out of crisis beds, crisis accommodation beds, but also tents to give people to sleep rough in the parks. They lose their access to medical care and they lose their access to income.”
Commissioner Cockayne also heard from female workers who became pregnant and received no antenatal care because of their vulnerable situation.
Union organiser Jonathon Cook says he's heard of workers breaking their wrist and being put on a plane back home, rather than receiving care.
There are changes underway to address issues like this - with the federal government trialling Medicare access for 200 PALM workers and their families, for example.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman also says that compliance with workplace laws in the agriculture sector is a priority focus.
Commissioner Cockayne says he is encouraged by the efforts being made to reduce the risk of modern slavery in the agriculture, horticulture and meat processing sectors - as well as the parliamentary inquiry in New South Wales that was launched late last week.
“I'm optimistic that we'll see conclusions from the inquiry in the first half of next year if it all goes to plan, and that there'll be some really practical ideas put on the table.”
Commissioner Cockayne and union organiser Jonathon Cook both emphasised that most temporary migrant workers are treated well.
Advocate Moe Turaga agrees.
But he also knows from experience what it's like to be one of the unlucky few who experience modern slavery.
“I believe in a fair days work for a fair day's pay, and this should be common to all employers out there, that these guys, we need these guys to work for us. We need the migrant workers here in Australia to work for us. We should pay the same respect for their presence for being here.”
A vital reminder as Australia seeks to increase its reliance on temporary Pacific labour.
