Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Greek philosopher Aristotle is credited with saying that true democracy requires citizens to care about injustice to others. As a general observation, Australia could be considered a democratic country, and it prides itself on being so. The very simple Australian citizenship pledge specifically states, 'whose democratic beliefs I share'. Yet even Australian democracy is far from perfect. It has its flaws, and our laws do not always deliver justice. When laws do not deliver justice, confidence in government diminishes. When confidence in government diminishes, civil standards begin to crumble.

In Australia, the notion of a fair go used to be central to our character, but it is a characteristic that is rapidly fading. Maintaining civil standards is dependent on all Australians believing in those standards and calling out poor or bad behaviour when it occurs. Regrettably, all too often when wrongdoing or malpractice is called out, the person calling out the wrongdoing is attacked and becomes the target. It happens in the private sector, it happens in government departments, it happens in sporting bodies, in religious organisations and across so many other aspects of life.

In recent years there have been widely reported examples of whistleblowers who have exposed serious wrongdoing and are then themselves punished, prosecuted and even jailed. The common tactic by both government and the private sector is to smear, threaten and even prosecute those people who expose malpractice. The cases of ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle and ADF whistleblower David McBride are good examples of where acting in the public good can have devastating consequences for the whistleblower. The charging and prosecution of those two whistleblowers does not pass the pub test and highlights the need to further strengthen national whistleblowing laws.

Recently at a parliamentary briefing Kieran Pender, the associate legal director of the Whistleblower Project—Australia's first specialist legal service for whistleblowers, based at the Human Rights Law Centre—reported that, since launching in mid 2023, the project has triaged more than 600 whistleblowing inquiries and provided advice to more than 200 whistleblowers. Those figures alone are concerning, and I suspect they are only the tip of the iceberg. We now have the case of an ASIO whistleblower who is known by the pseudonym 'Marcus'. I recently wrote to the Attorney-General about this matter. Marcus claims to have information relating to the Bondi shootings. However, it appears that ASIO is attempting to discredit him. His story went to air last month on ABC's Four Corners. I hope Marcus is able to provide evidence to the Bondi royal commission.

When others see whistleblowers poorly treated they remain silent, and the wrongdoing continues. This issue is integral to our democracy and to the Australian people's ability to have confidence in our institutions. We need to do better. I know that the Attorney-General is looking at strengthening the whistleblower laws. I commend her for that, and I look forward to those changes being brought to this parliament so that we can indeed provide protection to whistleblowers when they need it. I also understand that one of the concerns we have in this country is that there is a plethora of laws that protect whistleblowers. Simply navigating through those laws is in itself a legal minefield. However, if we can improve that, I would certainly welcome it.

The other matter I wish to speak about is the issue of the world as it stands today. We live in very difficult times. Global instability is at its highest level since World War II. Global conflict, frequent devastating extreme weather events, global population growth, and irregular immigration, cost-of-living pressures, transnational crime, and even rapid technology changes are all causing uncertainty, insecurity and fear across society. Australia has again been caught up in another US initiated war, a war that has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent people, including a reported 175 or so schoolchildren and staff at a school bombed in Iran and around 750,000 people in Lebanon who are now displaced. It is a war that many reasonable observers question the legitimacy of, a war that is already having serious consequences for the world, including here in Australia. We are seeing the effects on fuel prices and indeed the flow-on effects that that has here in Australia and indeed across the world.

My view is that this is only the beginning. It is only a matter of time before other imported everyday products are also affected as shipping lanes are disrupted. It's in effect the kind of situation we saw when COVID struck this country some five years ago, when products suddenly became scarce and supply chains became very difficult. I see that happening again. But it also highlights once again that, whilst here in Australia we are very far removed from even the Middle East war, the reality is that it still impacts us, as do other global events. And once again it highlights the need for Australia to rebuild its manufacturing base, something the Albanese government is committed to doing and something that I think is so important.

We used to have a country where just about every product was manufactured here. I can recall that in the 1960s or thereabouts there wasn't a single product that was needed for everyday use that wasn't made here in Australia. However, we have gone from having something like 30 per cent of the workforce employed by manufacturing at that time to having more like only five or six per cent, which shows how much we have lost in terms of the manufacturing ability of this country. Again, it is important for Australia to rebuild its manufacturing base not only because we cannot continuously rely on importing products from overseas but also because it builds skills and gives us security. And, to be frank, we have the ability to do so, as we used to do.

The last issue I want to touch on is modern slavery. Whilst Australia has a Modern Slavery Act, and we have appointed former senator Chris Evans as the first Anti-Slavery Commissioner, we must do more to ensure that large businesses do not source products that are produced under slave labour. This is happening too often and in too many places. In fact, the number of people who are currently considered to be treated as slaves around the world is something like 50 million, and the figure has grown in recent years.

In a society and in a world where we would have thought that slavery ended 100 years or so ago, it's interesting to note that there are more people today working under slave conditions than there were in decades past. I'm not entirely surprised by that, because, with just over half of the world's population living in either extreme or relative poverty, modern slavery is an easy issue for those who want to exploit cheap labour. And we are seeing it throughout so many parts of the world. Human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriages, sexual exploitation and the like are all too common in so many other countries.

This is a global problem, and I don't pretend we can solve it alone here in Australia. But we can play our role in reducing modern slavery throughout the world, as other countries have done and are doing. Yes, we do have a Modern Slavery Act here in Australia, but more needs to be done. We need to ensure that big businesses—because they are the ones who import most of the products that come into this country—have an obligation that they in turn ensure that the products they are bringing in are not produced under slave-like conditions. Whilst our current laws attempt to do that, they simply don't go far enough. I accept that there are a lot of businesses in this country that indeed do the right thing—companies who try to source their products from ethical manufacturers overseas, who take a stand when they know products are produced in places where slave-like conditions are used—but that's not always the case with many other big businesses.

Yes, slavery produces cheap products, and I guess in the end it's also up to individual consumers to take a stand and try to source and buy products that come from places where they are produced ethically. But the reality is that consumer demand is driven by cost, and cost obviously means that importers look for the cheapest product and don't necessarily source from places that produce ethically. I accept that it is sometimes difficult to trace back to where a product was made, because the chain of supply can sometimes be very complicated. I accept that for any business to undertake the detailed investigations they need in order to know where a product comes from is not always simple. I believe we can do better, and I believe we should do better. We have an obligation, to all those people around the world today who are being treated as slaves, to stop their exploitation. In particular, we have an obligation to ensure that all those children around the world who are used to make products and used as child labour are also freed from their bondage.

I believe we can do more. I know that the government is now looking at this issue to try to strengthen the laws, through the Anti-Slavery Commissioner. There is work being done right now to see how we can address this issue. I certainly look forward to reports coming back to this parliament and the laws of modern slavery being strengthened.

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