Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike the United States, the labour market in Australia has never relied on a large pool of migrant workers working in the so-called black market or unauthorised economy. Despite this, at various times the government, supported by the tabloid media, has sought to whip up fears of ‘illegals’ taking Australians’ jobs. There is a serious issue in Australia with the exploitation of migrant workers who do not have the correct visa—and, indeed, exploitation of people who do have the correct visa. Many of them are employed on substandard wages or, in some cases, held in what amounts to servitude because of the fear of discovery by immigration authorities, and we see unscrupulous employers employing such people in order to reduce the wages bill and to have a subservient workforce. The Greens support the Migration (Visa Application) Charge Amendment Bill 1998 because it seeks to shift some responsibility for this issue onto employers, rather than targeting workers. We do not want to see migrant workers criminalised. However, we do have some concerns about the possible implications of this bill and hope that the implementation of these changes will be closely monitored to ensure that there are not adverse impacts on employers who are not attempting to exploit their workers but rather are assisting people who deserve to be able to work.

The recent scandals that we have seen in the actions of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs around people such as Vivian Solon have resulted from the current government’s propensity to divide people into ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ with a zealousness that has been very destructive to people’s lives and has seen frequent mistakes made. Labelling people as ‘illegal’ and treating them like criminals by putting them in detention centres has been a massive failure that continues to this day. We hope that this bill does not lead to an attitude where people who are found working without the correct visa are treated as hardcore criminals. We need to have some perspective about the kinds of offences we are talking about. We do see illegal workers who contribute to the economy. Their paperwork is not regular but they often do a regular day’s work for a regular day’s pay—or sometimes less—and they lead fairly regular lives.

Recently, in the United States of America, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of illegal workers took to the streets against harsh new immigration laws being brought in by the Bush administration. Many chose to withdraw their labour for a day, which forced the closure of many factories and services. Senator Hillary Clinton told a rally of thousands in New York:

Your faces are the faces of America.

Whilst the scale of illegal workers in America is very different from that in Australia, both countries have been built on immigration and we must be careful not to demonise new arrivals based on their visa status.

The Australian Greens are also concerned about the potential for increased discrimination against migrant workers as a result of this bill. We are concerned that employers may be more reluctant to employ people from certain backgrounds because of fears about their visa status and their work rights position. We do not want this bill to inadvertently lead to discrimination against already disadvantaged workers in our community. During the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee inquiry into this bill, these concerns were raised by the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office. They stated:

With the amendment stating that it is an offence to knowingly or recklessly allow those without work rights to work in Australia illegally people who might look or sound differently are likely to find themselves not only questioned but also suspected of breaking the law. This might further fuel prejudices, racism and xenophobia and result in further exclusion for a group that is already experiencing disadvantages and discrimination in the labour market.

The Greens urge the government and the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to educate employers and carefully monitor the implementation of this legislation to ensure that it does not lead to any increase in discrimination against migrant workers in Australia.

Unfortunately, the government’s policy in relation to refugees also contributes to the problem that this bill is seeking to address. Many asylum seekers who live in the community are barred from working by their visa status. Therefore, many of them may feel that they have no choice but to seek employment on the black market. I will move to these issues later in my comments.

First I want to deal with one other issue raised and dealt with in this legislation. Right now, in detention centres across the country, the government’s privatisation of immigration detention has allowed the prison corporation GSL, which runs these immigration detention centres, to exploit detainees who want to work while they are locked up behind the razor wire. Currently, detainees who perform work in immigration detention centres, whether it is gardening, cleaning or in the kitchens, receive the equivalent of $1 an hour. The equivalent of one measly dollar an hour is how much this private company, GSL, which has a background in running private prison facilities, pays some of its detainee employees. These workers are probably the lowest paid workers in Australia. They clean rooms, work in the kitchens, maintain the grounds and provide other work around immigration detention centres.

Earlier this year the detainees who were working in the kitchen at Villawood detention centre went on strike. They were being paid the equivalent of $70 a week for a seven- to eight-hour day. They were cooking and serving three meals a day and cleaning for over 300 people and receiving $70 a week. When they started their strike action they were asking for $175 a week, which is still way below the minimum wage. It is scandalous that, on top of everything else that detainees experience in immigration detention centres, they are slaving away for virtually nothing—$1 a day—just so that they can earn the right to buy cigarettes or phone cards. During this strike at Villawood detention centre, the management, of course, was trying to get other detainees to work at the old rate of $1 an hour. Meanwhile, the private company brought in casual contract workers, who were being paid $15 an hour to do the work that detainees in Villawood do for $1 an hour.

We have heard a lot in this place and in the community about the government’s industrial relations laws—how workers can be more easily sacked and wages and conditions are being be driven down. The Greens have been a part of this opposition in the community to these laws. But the situation in Villawood detention centre is perhaps even worse than many of the cases that we have heard talk of—where employers use the government’s new industrial relations laws to attack workers.

What we have in Villawood is a workforce that is locked behind razor wire, that is often subject to brutal treatment by private prison guards and that needs to work in order to get access to some basic entitlements such as the use of the telephone. This is a workforce that is being ruthlessly exploited by the private prison contractor with the assistance and support of this government. We see that in this legislation. This is not a new problem. It has been going on for some time. The minister, the department and the government are well aware of it. Last September, Unions NSW called for a full review of working conditions at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre following claims from detainees that the detention centre was profiting from using detainees as slave labour.

GSL, the private company running these detention facilities, and the government are in legal hot water over this situation. On the one hand, they may be breaching industrial relations laws by paying these workers so little. On the other hand, they may be breaching immigration law by employing the people who are held in these detention centres. This situation has meant that the department of immigration, the government and the private company running the detention centres have redefined what the detainees have been doing as an activity rather than as work in order to get out of this legal hot water. It is reflected in the Orwellian language that is issued on the time sheets in Villawood detention centre and also in the statements made by department of immigration officials and staff from GSL. But a mere name change does not change the fact that these workers are being exploited by the private company running this detention facility, and the company is being aided and abetted in this by the government.

The Federal Court is currently considering these issues in a case that has been brought by a detainee from Villawood detention centre against the department of immigration, the government and GSL, the private contractors who run the immigration facility. Of course, his claim is only one amongst potentially hundreds from detainees at Baxter detention centre and other detention centres around the country who are in similar situations.

Perhaps the current court case in the Federal Court explains the clause in this bill that seeks to exempt immigration detention centres from the sanctions to be used against employers who employ a person who does not have a work visa. Proposed section 245AF of the bill states in part that the penalties do not apply:

… where … a detainee in immigration detention voluntarily engages in an activity of a kind approved in writing by the Secretary for the purposes of this paragraph.

This clause will legally sanction the employment of detainees in detention centres. The Greens support the clarifying of the legal status of detainees, who we say should be able to work; however, they should not be exploited, and the government must ensure that these detainees are properly remunerated for the work that they do. It could be doing so in this piece of legislation we are debating but, instead, it is seeking to protect itself from the current Federal Court case.

While the government in this legislation and by its actions wants to allow work to be done by asylum seekers in detention centres, when they are released from detention centres and allowed to live in the community it is not allowing these people to work. It is fine for them to work in detention centres and be paid a dollar an hour; but, through the government’s bridging visa E system, people are released from detention and are told that they cannot work and they must rely on the services of charity organisations.

There is no provision in this bill to expand work rights for some of these visa categories when the people in these categories desperately need work rights. Bridging visa Es are issued to asylum seekers who are allowed to live in the community while their asylum claims are assessed. People on bridging visa E must get special permission from the department of immigration to be able to work and most of them do not have work rights. They have limited access to social services and Medicare and are forced to live off charity from friends, family or church and other community groups. Some may be on a bridging visa E for many months or even years at a time. These people often want to work but know they will be breaking the law if they do.

The Melbourne Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, during the inquiry into this legislation, told the Senate committee:

Research has found that ineligible asylum seekers live in abject poverty with virtually no mainstream supports available to them. The impact of this coupled with prolonged passivity has caused high levels of anxiety, depression, mental health issues and a general reduction in overall health and nutrition. Though [Bridging Visa Category E was] originally intended to be of only three months duration, there are some asylum seekers who have been on a bridging visa E for over eight years. The burden to support these people has been left to underresourced community and church groups and is unsustainable, particularly for the needs of growing children. Most people seeking Australia’s protection in this situation are completely reliant on charity.

The Uniting Church recently commissioned independent research into people who are living on bridging visa E. They found that, of the 211 adult working-age asylum seekers interviewed living in Victoria and New South Wales, 71 per cent had skills Australia needs and almost half had skills that are in very high demand according to the government’s own migration occupations in demand list. The same study concluded that the ‘denial of work rights to asylum seekers in Australia equates to a potential loss of $188 million to the Australian GDP over a three-year period’. The solution is simple, according to Reverend Gormann from the Uniting Church, who says:

… providing work rights to asylum seekers whilst they await a decision on their protection or humanitarian visa, would enable individuals and families to live independently, save the community millions of dollars, and would contribute to the Australian economy.

During the recent Senate inquiry into the administration and operation of the Migration Act,the inquiry was told by Ms Turner, a volunteer who helps people on bridging visas:

These people in contemporary Australia are literally starving, dependent on charity for food and a roof over their heads, for an unlimited and uncertain period of time.

The Senate inquiry recommended that all holders of bridging visa E should be given work rights. The Australian Greens hope the current departmental review of these matters will make the same recommendation. However, given the record of this government in responding positively or even at all to Senate inquiries, we are not prepared to wait while people on bridging visa E continue to struggle in the community. For that reason, I will be moving in the committee stage of this bill an amendment to implement the recommendation from the Senate inquiry that people holding bridging visa E in the community should be able to work.

The effect of this amendment will be to relieve the burden on asylum seekers and others on bridging visa E, the burden on welfare agencies such as the Red Cross that are forced to look after the asylum seekers, the burden on Centrelink and other government welfare agencies, and to relieve in a small way some of the skills shortages that are a major problem for the Australian economy. It is a sensible amendment implementing the recommendations of the Senate inquiry into the Migration Act, and I hope the Senate will support it.

The Australian Greens will support this bill because we do not want to see shonky and unscrupulous employers and rapacious businesses exploiting vulnerable people who are criminalised by the immigration department. However, we do not accept the hypocrisy of this government that is allowing prison companies to exploit immigration detainees in detention centres but locking asylum seekers in the community out of the workforce. We intend to monitor the effects of this bill and, if it is used to further criminalise and discriminate against migrants, we will be holding the government to account.