Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution to the debate on the Migrant Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Bill 2025, currently before the House. The Albanese government has made a commitment in the Migration Strategy, released in December 2023, to develop the skills-in-demand visa. The passage and implementation of this bill will continue the government's commitment to strengthen and maintain the integrity of the temporary skilled migration system.

The bill is needed to enhance protections and oversight mechanisms through the establishment of a public register of approved sponsors. The intention for the public register is to ensure that there is a limit to the exploitation of temporary skilled migrant workers and provide these workers with a resource to check that the sponsoring employer is legitimate. Unfortunately, I've seen too many people in my electorate office who've fallen prey to unscrupulous employers who promise things that are untrue, and when the worker arrives in Australia the conditions they are expected to work in are not up to Australian workplace standard conditions or the wages are not what they should be.

Often when they come to Australia these temporary workers have families with them. They are promised well-paying jobs and quickly find themselves here at the mercy of circumstances that were not what they were expecting. They can be trapped in this country, not only by the poor conditions and pay but also by concerns about the expectation from family and friends at home, particularly that what they are doing is going to enhance their family's and their own circumstances. This leaves them very vulnerable to mental health challenges and it makes it difficult for them to find suitable and reasonable accommodation and the other basics of life.

The development of this register will help combat worker exploitation and provide a resource to check that a sponsoring employer is legitimate. This is very important in order to maintain the integrity and transparency in the skilled migration program and to make sure Australia is valued in other places in the world. This bill will develop a public register that includes: the name and type of the approved sponsor; the sponsor's Australian Business Number, or ABN; the postcode associated with the approved sponsor's ABN; and the number of the sponsor's workers and their occupations. This will encourage transparency, monitoring and oversight.

The Albanese government's migration strategy has been informed by more than 450 submissions received as part of the review of the migration system. There has been extensive consultation with business, unions and other stakeholders. Targeting reforms to temporary skilled migration will address skills needs in our economy and promote worker mobility to areas where workers are required and where the economy needs more support. The review process included written submissions from individual migrants and visa applicants. The consultation also included eight round tables with peak organisations, unions, and senior state and territory government officials. I note that the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee said that most submissions broadly supported the provisions and the recommendations and that the bill should pass the Senate.

The aim of the register is to encourage public transparency and will be a resource for temporary skilled migrants to check that their sponsoring employers are legitimate. This is very important for Australia's reputation, both overseas and amongst our local diasporas here in Australia. It is important that rigour in this is in place to limit exploitations at the hands of those who seek to exploit and do things that are worse for their employees. Through the inclusion of postcodes, migrants will be able to consider their ability to move and find new employers near where there are already established community links and accommodation. This information also improves the practical nature and usefulness of the register.

Already proved standard business sponsors will be automatically included in the register without the need to request this at the time of applying. Data will be regularly updated to ensure its relevance and will complement the public register of sanctioned sponsors already published by the Australian Border Force. Employers will be advised at the time of the sponsorship application so that they understand their details will be included on the register. The register will only draw on already publicly available information that has been provided for their ABN. Furthermore, any disclosures of information will be consistent with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988. There will be no personal identification for the nominated workers included in the register's documentation.

This bill addresses the recommendations made in the report of the Migrant Workers' Taskforce, as well as additional measures to tackle exploitation of vulnerable workers on temporary visas. The exploitation of temporary visas hurts all workers, drives down all wages and worsens conditions for everyone. This bill also establishes new criminal offences and associated civil penalties to deter employers from using a visa condition or status to coerce, unduly influence or unduly pressure someone in a workplace. There is a new mechanism to prohibit an employer, if they're found to have breached any of these conditions of employment, from hiring any additional people on temporary visas for a period of time. There are also increases to the maximum criminal and civil penalties for all current and proposed work related offences provisions in the Migration Act. And it provides Border Force with the tools to address employer compliance.

There are revisions to the regulation-making power in the Migration Act to ensure worker exploitation must be taken into consideration if there is a need to cancel a visa. Higher penalties and additional powers for the Australian Border Force will be included. The bill increases the maximum penalties available under the Migration Act for work related breaches. Penalties will almost triple: for civil penalties, up to $99,000 for individuals and $495,000 for bodies corporate. In addition, the ABF will gain new compliance notice and enforceable undertaking powers.

These measures are designed to drive employer compliance under the Migration Act, which was unfortunately deprioritised over the past decade. The ABF will receive $50 million over the next four years to assist them to improve employer compliance as well as other immigration compliance priorities. Disappointingly, the former Liberal government failed to implement the key recommendations in the Migrant Workers' Taskforce report, which they sat on from 2019.

These new powers, it's good to say, are already reaping results. Last month, under strong new laws introduced by the Albanese Labor government, a Western Australian business became the first in the nation to be publicly named and shamed by the Australian Border Force for exploiting vulnerable migrant workers. It was the first prohibition notice introduced under the SEC Act. The company came under scrutiny late last year in relation to misleading information in their migrant worker sponsorship application and were subsequently sanctioned for serious noncompliance.

ABF officers across the country are actively scrutinising the status of employers' sponsorship agreements, as well as regularly making unannounced visits to workplaces to protect workers and expose employers who are exploiting migrant workers. We should note that not all employers behave like this. If we don't do something about those that are doing the wrong thing, it tars everybody with the same brush, so good employers will be happy with this legislation as well.

To maintain the integrity of the skilled migrant system in Australia, it's important that employers are approved by the Department of Home Affairs. The amendments in this bill will allow for the implementation and maintenance of the public register of approved work sponsors on the Department of Home Affairs website. This will ensure transparency and, more importantly, protection for the rights of temporary skilled migrant workers, who do so much to assist the Australian economy and Australians in general. I commend the bill to the House.

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