Anti-slavery commissioners across Australia have called for concrete action following revelations migrants have been working under conditions akin to modern-day slavery.
A system of illegal labour exploitation was still present in regional and rural New South Wales (NSW), the state’s anti-slavery Commissioner James Cockayne said on Aug.5.
This involved forced labour, debt bondage, servitude, deceptive recruiting and in some cases, sexual servitude, he said.
“Vulnerable workers are being recruited into conditions that we have found include indicators of modern slavery,” Cockayne told reporters in Sydney, while also urging the NSW government to act on the concerns.
His comments were aimed at addressing the grievances facing many of the 33,000 migrants on the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
PALM workers hail from the Pacific Islands and East Timor to fill the shortage of unskilled and low-skilled labour across regional Australia.
They fill gaps primarily in the horticulture and the meat-processing sectors, with jobs typically in fruit picking and animal slaughtering.
Visa conditions imposed on PALM workers have left some earning as little as $70 per week, an inability to leave their job, and no access to Medicare, according to Cockayne.
The scheme ensures a minimum wage but businesses working alongside the program can make deductions.
This includes the cost of flights to Australia, visas, accommodation—often provided by the employer—and transporting the workers from their housed residence to and from work.
Cockayne noted in 2024 there was a consistent picture that PALM workers were growing vulnerable to modern slavery.
The ongoing evidence and lack of action regarding PALM workers was also called out by federal anti-slavery commissioner Chris Evans on Aug. 4.
“We have spent years documenting the exploitation of migrant workers,” he said.
“The real test is not whether we are shocked by each new investigation. It is whether we are prepared to act on what we already know.”
A recent nation-wide poll from The Australia Institute canvassed more than 2,000 people and two-thirds responded in support of PALM workers’ rights to change jobs and access Medicare.
Most survey respondents believed the workers lived in dilapidated housing.
By Morgan Reinwald in Canberra
