Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, and I am happy to do everything I can to raise community awareness to see whether we can get some action on this important issue. As a person who is committed to seeing that the millennium goals are achieved and as a person who is committed to the elimination of poverty, I was horrified on that particular day to learn of the abuses and exploitations that take place in the production of chocolate.

West Africa collectively supplies nearly 80 per cent of world cocoa. Large cocoa producers such as Cadbury’s, Nestles and Hershey buy cocoa from the Ivory Coast and it is mixed with other cocoa. Thirty per cent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in child labour, mostly in agricultural activities, including cocoa farming. There is a lot of recorded information on this. In 1998 a report from the Ivory Coast office of UNICEF concluded that the Ivory Coast farmers used enslaved children. From then on there have been a series of reports. In 2001 there was the report A taste of slavery: how your chocolate may be tainted. The BBC reported on children from Mali being sold as slaves. A British television documentary also claimed many Ivory Coast plantations were using slave labour. In 2002 there was another report and in 2005 there were a number of reports. In 2006 there was a study showing children working on the farms. In 2007 UNICEF representatives on the Ivory Coast made some pretty telling statements.

The one thing that has remained constant is that no matter where you go in the world you find reports on the fact that this abuse of children exists. Children are being abused, sold into slavery, bashed and made to work long hours—between 80 to 100 hours a week, it is reported in just about every piece of information I have read on this issue. Nothing changes. There have been attempts in the US to introduce a voluntary code. They failed to meet the time requirements and there was an extension to 2008. Once again that was not met. It really is time that some action is taken.

The Don’t Trade Lives campaign by World Vision should be supported not only by members of this parliament but by all Australians. There are little ways that we can make differences. When we go along and talk to community groups, we should be raising this issue. We should be making people aware of the fact that this abuse exists.

In today’s Newcastle Herald there is a report that tonight at the University of Newcastle a convention of 350 health students is being run where this particular issue is being looked at. Students in the area of health are going to be looking at the production of chocolate and how as individuals they can make a difference. My message to the parliament tonight is this: join together, make a difference and do not let this abuse continue. Once again, I would like to congratulate the member for Sturt for bringing what I believe is a very important motion to the parliament.

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