Remarks - national roundtable on human trafficking and slavery

I am pleasedto have this opportunity to say a few words. This annual forum is importantbecause it focuses, and re-focuses, our efforts on eliminating humantrafficking, modern slavery, and other forms of forced labour, not onlyregionally, but globally. No country is immune from these scourges. No countrycan resolve it alone. No government can do it without the support and theengagement of the private sector and civil society.

I thought Iwould give you a little update of some of the matters I have been involved withsince we last met and specifically the Bali Process last week on the 7thof August. I co-chaired the 7th Bali Process Ministerial Forum with IndonesianForeign Minister Retno Marsudi. We had a record number of ministers, that isministerial-level delegates attend, which I thought was a very positive sign ofthe significance that is increasingly attached to the Bali Process by theparticipant countries. We have 45 member countries and four internationalorganisations as members. We welcomed on board the ILO as the fourthmultilateral organisation member. All delegates, all heads of delegation, madea contribution to the plenary session and most made a contribution to theafternoon session with business. The business sector met in the morning. Again,if I could just focus on the business session, there were a record number ofparticipants from countries and the level and the calibre of businessrepresentatives was quite outstanding. In other words, we had people quite highup the executive chain in terms of businesses that were present. We talkedabout increasing engagement in civil society and the importance of that. Wealso endorsed the Bali Process Government and Business Forums 'Acknowledge,Act, Advance' agenda, 'AAA'. Acknowledge: meaning ensuring that there is anawareness and an understanding of the scale of the issue and where it occursand how it occurs and why it occurs. Acknowledge that in supply chains, forexample, around the world, this kind of human rights abuse occurs and we haveto understand the scale of it. Secondly, Act: in other words, ensuring that youdo develop policy guidelines. For example, on supply chain transparency,guidelines on ethical recruitment, redress mechanisms and strengtheningpolicies and legislation. There is a lot of discussion about Australia's ModernSlavery Act, as you can imagine, as setting an example of what can be achieved,and then talking about implementing ethical business practices. Advance: we arecontinuing the momentum that we have achieved in between Bali Process meetings,not just at every meeting.

The conferencewas in fact, the culmination of 12 months of a lot of work in preparation forthe ministerial forum. We implemented the third joint period of action, 9 jointoperations have contributed to 72 convictions. I think that is a significantoutcome. We endorsed the new 'Following the money' policy guideline andassociated training module. We adopted a statement as a contribution of theglobal compact on migration. We triggered the confrontation mechanism thatenabled considered responses to major displacement crisis and, as I referred toearlier, the Bali Process Government and Business Forum, which we launched inPerth in August of 2017. There is clearly much more for us to do. I have to saythe business forum is a huge step forward, getting business to acknowledge theissue. I was sitting around conference tables listening to seniorrepresentatives of the palm oil industry acknowledging that modern slavery existsin their supply chains, listening to senior executives from Adidas, from Nike,from Coca Cola Amatil acknowledging it exists and it is in their supply chainsand what they are going to do about it. It was extraordinary. It was quitetingling to listen to them talk about it with a passion to, which was almostbordering on Andrew Forrest's passion for it but down a notch or two, but theacknowledgement and the willingness to be part of the global engagement on thisissue was heartening.

Ourcollaboration with the private sector and civil society is really at the key ofit all. I just thought I would mention Alliance 8.7. As international momentumto eradicate human trafficking and modern slavery continues to build, and thereis no doubt in my mind and from what I have observed, we have to respond in acoordinated and holistic way. We are playing a leadership role on Alliance 8.7.We are chairing – Argentina is a Deputy Chair – but we are chairing Alliance8.7, it is a partnership with governments, UN agencies, business and civilsociety to tackle forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking, childlabour and associated crimes. We launched it, as you will recall, in September2016 at the UN General Assembly Leaders Week. It does support the Bali Processobjectives and certainly Prime Minister Turnbull's undertaking with UK's PrimeMinister May to cooperate on combatting modern slavery and domestic modernslavery priorities. It certainly aligns with everything that we are doing.

During ourtenure as chair, what we sought to do was establish appropriate light-touchgovernment structures. We are aware that we can't over burden because peoplewill walk away, so light-touch government structures. We are demonstratingresults as countries respond, so at a global, regional and country level. 8.7complements what we are doing domestically including our political commitmentsto the SDGs and the call to action to enforce labour, modern slavery and humantrafficking. It does provide a platform for joined up action at a regional andcountry level. In 2018, Alliance 8.7 will launch Delta 8.7 which is going to bea knowledge platform, a one-stop-shop for policy makers working on theseissues.

Just a quickupdate on our aid program. At the ASEAN-AustraliaSpecial Summit in Sydney that was held in March this year, we announced a10-year $80 million commitment to continue our long running collaboration withthe ASEAN countries to combat human trafficking in our region. There are 10ASEAN countries as you know that includes Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia,Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Brunei and this firstever ASEAN-Australia leaders meeting was an ideal opportunity for us to launchthat program and received a lot of buy-in from the leaders who were there.

We are working with all the ASEAN states as they implement what is a landmark ASEANconvention against trafficking persons. That entered into force in March oflast year and so our investment is going to support their work with civilsociety and the private sector and the Bali Process - and you know we have thetriangle in ASEAN program, that is a 10 year program from 2015 to 2025 and thatis about supporting safe and fair migration to reduce migrant's vulnerabilityto trafficking.

One otherissue I was just going to mention and that was orphanage voluntourism. We, as agovernment, are raising awareness of how orphanage voluntourism can encourageharmful practices and in fact put vulnerable children at risk. I want to takethis opportunity to acknowledge the work of Senator Linda Reynolds in thatregard, she has been a championing in bringing this issue to the attention ofgovernments around the world and she was in London in April during CommonwealthHeads of Government, CHOGM week, as was I. We held an event at Australia Houseto launch our efforts on Smart Volunteering. Simon Birmingham and I launchedour Smart Volunteering Campaign in March of this year which reflects our strongcommitment to providing a clear public message to discourage any form ofshort-term unskilled volunteering in orphanages overseas, where it is occurring,what to watch out for and particularly encourage students and universitystudents to not to become involved in these practices that are a having areverse impact. I think it is an education campaign that was very much neededat this time. We are working with civil society partners, DFAT is working witha range of stakeholders to draw their attention to this important issue and, asI said, Linda and I were both at Australia House in London in April when wehosted an event with Lumos Foundation to raise awareness amongst Commonwealthcountries. There was quite a good turnout of Commonwealth countries at thatevent.

That gives abit of a summary of what we are doing as a Government but I can assure you thatour commitment is only deepening. I acknowledge the work that Chris Crewtherdid as chair of our Foreign Affairs Committee on the modern slavery issue. Ithas resulted in legislation. There are not too many chairs who can say from astanding-start, an issue that they took on, brought to a committee, the committeeconsidered in in a very thorough and consultative way, presentedrecommendations to the Government and we drafted legislation that was debatedin Cabinet, debated in the Party Room and is now before the Parliament. It isan outstanding effort, Chris. I really do congratulate you on your commitmentto it and the thoroughly professional way that you addressed what could havebeen a very contentious issue within our Parliament, the concern thatbusinesses would find this as an additional burden. In fact, businesses haveembraced the work that Chris' committee did.

I hope that has been ofassistance. I am not quite sure where you were up to in your deliberations butthat is a summary of my involvement in the last 12 months since we last met.