Senate debates

Monday, 24 June 2013

Answers to Questions on Notice

Question No. 2992

3:06 pm

Photo of Peter Whish-WilsonPeter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

I thank the minister for her answer. Government has a very important role to play in showing leadership on this issue. It is not just about buttons and zips; this is a much bigger and very important issue of how we ethically source garments.

Four Corners will be showing a documentary tonight that relates to the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh on 24 April when nearly 1,200 people were killed. The Senate did show some leadership on this issue, just recently passing a motion calling on all the major retailers to sign the Bangladesh accord. Following that motion, I wrote to Woolworths, Coles and Kmart asking if they would be signing that accord. So far I have received an explanation from Woolworths that they do intend to sign that accord. They certainly understand the significance of this issue.

This is all about education and the awareness of the Australian public. I must confess, going shopping with my 13-year-old daughter recently, I found there is very little information around on where garments and clothing items are sourced from. We often do not realise that attached to the production of these clothes are some appalling working conditions that will be covered by the Four Corners documentary tonight.

It is important that the government shows leadership on this issue to raise education and awareness. It certainly was not a flippant question nor was it at all a witch hunt. With the documentary being this shown evening, I did see an opportunity to get this issue on record. If we can show that we do have some sort of certification process for the garments procured by the Commonwealth then that could set a good example for other businesses. While Coles, Woolworths and Kmart are looking at signing the Bangladesh accord, that is only with one country and they are only three organisations.

A large number of other retailers and importers also bring in cheap products from foreign countries that are also associated with appalling worker safety and pay conditions. This is a really big issue. This debate relates to fair trade versus free trade. It is all about price these days in our consumer society. We buy a lot. We expect to pay virtually nothing, particularly for items of clothing. But what we do not do is stop and think about where those clothes were made, under what conditions they were made and whether our buying patterns are supporting and locking in appalling working conditions.

How do you beat this? You need an education and awareness program. You also need a certification process, if not through a voluntary code then through a mandatory code, that compels producers to identify where those garments were made, from where they were sourced and under what ethical conditions. I thought this was a good opportunity for the government to show some leadership on this issue and that is why I sent the questions through. I look forward to receiving those responses.

Question agreed to.

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