Page 754 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 28 March 2023
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Road Transport (General) Concession Determination 2023 (No 1)—Disallowable Instrument DI2023-18 (LR, 6 March 2023).
Road Transport (General) Vehicle Registration and Related Fees Determination 2023 (No 1)—Disallowable Instrument DI2023-16 (LR, 6 March 2023).
Utilities Act—Utilities (ACT Retail Electricity—Transparency and Comparability Code) Variation 2023—Disallowable Instrument DI2023-14 (LR, 16 February 2023).
Modern Slavery Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
Ms Clay, pursuant to notice, presented the bill and its explanatory statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MS CLAY (Ginninderra) (3.13): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
I rise today to table the bill in my name, being the Modern Slavery Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. This bill is an important legislative step to combat modern slavery in the ACT.
Slavery is not merely a historical problem. Estimates are that more people live in slavery today than at any other time in human history. The most recent estimate puts this number at 50 million globally. It is a horrifying figure in our society. This is not simply an issue that happens somewhere else. Modern slavery is part of many of the goods we buy and the services we use every day. Thousands in Australia are personally affected and living in conditions of modern slavery.
Slavery today looks different than it did in the past. It takes many forms: forced marriage, sexual exploitation, forced labour, abuse of visa conditions, human and child trafficking. Slavery exists here in Australia and overseas. The majority of victims are women and children. It exists across many industries, including: hospitality, agriculture, cleaning, construction, and the textile, clothing and footwear industries. The most vulnerable people are those who are most at risk. People with limited residency and working rights, those who may not speak English or have limited English, those who have difficulty accessing support or enforcing their rights. They are all vulnerable to this.
As with all things, modern slavery falls on a spectrum: from particularly bad cases of worker exploitation, right up to the worst of the worst abuses of human rights. Slavery exists here in the ACT. We have seen high profile cases reported in the media in recent years. I have spoken to many people working in the field who know and help victim survivors, and they are working hard to stamp it out here. We would be foolish to imagine that this is someone else’s problem.
I came into my role in politics with some understanding of ethical consumption but very little knowledge of how embedded modern slavery is in our lives. I have learned an enormous amount over the past year working on this bill. There are so many
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