Thousands in NSW could be modern slavery victims, but one scheme may worsen the situation

Australia Broadcast Center

4 days ago

Australia faces a potential escalation in cases of modern slavery, the NSW anti-slavery commissioner warns, as sectors such as aged care become increasingly reliant on temporary migrant workers.
James Cockayne, who was appointed to the role in 2022, estimates more than 16,000 people in NSW are living in modern slavery conditions.
Each week on average, his office receives four reports of slavery — through the 1800 FREEDOM hotline — but he fears many more cases go unreported.
Some of the most common examples of modern slavery include forced labour, domestic and sexual servitude, debt bondage, deceptive recruiting and even human trafficking.
Dr Cockayne said it was a "very hidden" issue, not widely recognised by the general public.
"We all have the notion that slavery was abolished a long time ago and it was abolished as a legal construct, but it's still happening," he said.
While there is evidence of slavery in "a wide array of industries", Dr Cockayne has singled out aged care as an emerging area of concern.
This is because the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme — predominantly used to fill labour shortages in horticulture and meat processing — is now expanding into aged care.
The PALM scheme allows eligible businesses to hire workers from Pacific Island nations on temporary visas, but there have been widespread concerns it puts migrants at risk of exploitation.
Dr Cockayne said he was concerned the aged care sector had "not adequately" prepared for this risk.
"What we've seen in other places, where there's been a move to rely on temporary migrant workers, is a significant increase in modern slavery.
"In the UK, when temporary migrant workers were introduced into the healthcare sector, there was a doubling in one year of the number of reports of modern slavery from that sector."
The peak body for the aged care sector, Ageing Australia, has been contacted for a response.
NSW has often been touted as a leader in the fight against slavery — it was the first, and remains the only state or territory in Australia, to appoint an anti-slavery commissioner.
But Dr Cockayne said NSW had been lagging other states in cracking down on "dodgy labour hire companies".
He called for a licensing scheme to provide better oversight.
"New South Wales is one of the only jurisdictions in the country that doesn't have licensing of labour hire companies," Dr Cockayne said.
"That's certainly an area we'd like to see the government looking very hard at, and thinking about how they can strengthen regulation in that space."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the NSW Government said it has been "actively engaged" with the Commonwealth and other states and territories about establishing a national licensing scheme.
"Such a scheme would cover eligible workers in NSW," the statement said.
"The NSW Government recognises the serious risk of exploitation and modern slavery faced by temporary migrant workers, particularly in rural and regional areas."
It is not just within NSW that Dr Cockayne wants to see change — he argues anti-slavery policies adopted here could have global consequences.
His office is focusing heavily on government agencies can ensure the products and services they obtain are not the product of slavery in other countries.
Dr Cockayne argues NSW could be a world leader in eliminating this risk.
"If you take defence spending out of the picture, New South Wales is actually the largest purchaser of goods and services in the entire Southern Hemisphere," he said.
"It has a lot of commercial muscle to change the practices of businesses that produce goods and services with modern slavery."
Dr Cockayne acknowledges the issue could become increasingly difficult to navigate, given the growing demand for solar panels and electric vehicles — both of which have been linked with slave labour.
"The reality is that in certain contracts, for example around solar panels, it's very hard indeed to find slave-free supply," he said.
However, he said in some cases it might be counter-productive to cut commercial ties with suppliers that are linked to slavery.
"So we have to think about what the underlying policy goal is here," he said.
"Is it to not be associated with slavery? Or is it to actually use the relationship with the supplier to ensure that the goods and services are made in a way that doesn't rely on slavery?"
With his five-year term as NSW anti-slavery commissioner now past the halfway mark, Dr Cockayne said he had plenty of unfinished business.
He now also has a national counterpart — Chris Evans, who last year was appointed as the first Australian anti-slavery commissioner — and is in regular contact on cross-border issues.
"I do hope that we're able to demonstrate that we're driving down the frequency with which people are drawn into these really tragic horrible life events," Dr Cockayne said.
"But we will have to stay vigilant because there will always be vulnerable people operating in circumstances where the institutional safeguards don't protect them adequately from exploitation."