Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have just come from a meeting with a number of nuns from Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans who are working to do something about the unlawful trading of women—effectively slavery—in this country. When we go about our electorates, we would not ordinarily think that that occurs here. One thing they wanted to stress is that this is not just about sex workers but also about people being brought into the country and exploited by restaurants, the clothing trade and other areas where people are restricted because of their illegal entry. They are quarantined away, so they live separately and cannot go to the authorities or the police. A disturbing point the sisters pointed out to me is that, when they are found and repatriated to their own countries, the stigma attached to those women as a consequence of being traded has the effect that they are probably going to be subjected to human trafficking once again. Mr Deputy Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to raise this matter.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.