Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations, Deputy Speaker O'Brien, on your ascension. Once again labour hire firms are in the news for all the wrong reasons. This week we learnt that 70 migrant workers have been illegally accommodated by a labour hire firm in a five-bedroom house in northern Tasmania—70 workers in five bedrooms. Each of those workers had been told to hand over more than $100 a week in rent for the privilege of living in such disgraceful conditions. That's $7,000 a week in rent collected by the labour hire firm Owen Pacific, which is accredited by this government to bring workers into Australia under the Pacific workers scheme. As well as rent, the workers have been charged more than $100 a week each to be bussed to and from the fruit farms they work at. That's another $7,000 a week. That's $14,000 a week in Owen Pacific's pocket, on top of what it is being paid by farmers for the labour. After rent, transport, food and airfares are taken out, these workers have as little as $150 a week remaining to send back to their families in Tonga and other Pacific island nations. This is happening because the Morrison government is happy to turn a blind eye to illegal and disreputable behaviour by labour hire firms. Why aren't these cowboys better supervised to ensure they meet their legal obligations? Where are the sanctions? Where are the consequences? Where is the ongoing oversight to ensure that these workers are being properly treated in the workplace?