Jeannie Ferris (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Ellison. Will the minister update the Senate on the Howard government’s efforts to combat the abhorrent crimes of sexual servitude and sex trafficking?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week we saw the conviction of a 44-year-old woman in relation to five charges of possessing a slave, five charges of exercising a power of ownership over a slave—

Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Only one?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I realise that Senator Allison from the Democrats is not interested in this, with her interjection. Could I say that this is a very important situation, where, in a modern-day environment, in Australia, in a developed country such as ours and in the world that we live in today, we have someone being convicted of slavery. That is a matter which is repugnant to the government and to the people of Australia. What it does show is that we are taking action to crack down on trafficking in people, which one would think would not take place in today’s environment, but unfortunately it does.

I will continue with my previous remark, which involved the conviction of a 44-year-old woman, who was convicted of five charges of possessing a slave and five charges of exercising a power of ownership over a slave, under the slavery provisions of the Commonwealth Criminal Code. This was the first conviction by a jury under the new legislation. Can I say that it was, in fact, the second conviction in that a first conviction, that of a co-accused, was obtained in December 2004. That was on a plea of guilty. It was suppressed by order of the court and, of course, it could not be publicised. What it does demonstrate is that the AFP is doing a very good job in working domestically and internationally in cracking down on the trafficking in persons.

Back in 2003 we set about an initiative, with some $20 million being expended on setting up a task force in the Australian Federal Police, working in our region to deal with those countries that are working with us in the fight against this repugnant trade. We placed people overseas in relation to this. What we have also done is to work with the victims of this vile trade. In relation to that, we have provided criminal justice stay visas for those who can give evidence and assist us in achieving convictions as a result of subsequent prosecutions.

It was just last year that we introduced further laws to crack down on this trade. On 3 August last year, we introduced laws which comprehensively criminalised this activity. As a result of feedback from law enforcement authorities and the DPP, we amended our laws to assist our authorities in prosecuting and bringing to justice those responsible. We introduced debt bondage offences to prevent traffickers from using unfair debt contracts and other similar arrangements to force their victims into providing sexual services or other labour to pay off large debts. We also expanded deception offences to include all types of deception in recruiting persons to provide sexual services. This expanded the ability of Australian law enforcement authorities to crack down on and catch those people who are involved in this sort of activity. We will continue to do so.

There are a number of prosecutions pending. We are working with countries in the region. Indeed, in visits to the region, I have raised with my counterparts Australia’s firm resolve in relation to cracking down on this trade. Indeed, in Washington in the last fortnight, I raised this with the TIP office, which conducts an annual report on people trafficking—a report which described Australia as a prominent leader in many regional projects aimed at combating people trafficking. I think that that is an important recognition of the work we do, but of course there is still much work to be done, and Australia will do that.