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Insight: July 26

Tonight Insight looks at questions of fair work, fair pay and labour exploitation.

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Tonight Insight looks at questions of fair work, fair pay and labour exploitation.

SBS gathers a range of foreign workers, some now Australian citizens, who have experienced exploitation in many different industries.

Around one million people in Australia are recently-arrived visa holders with work rights.
There’s a high demand for cheap and unregulated workers in Australia and a ready supply of foreign workers looking to earn an Australian wage.

Last year, labour exploitation accounted for about a third of all human trafficking investigations conducted by the AFP, and complaints to the Fair Work Ombudsman from migrant workers have soared in recent years.

Labour hire companies, which provide workers to some of Australia’s biggest companies, are among the biggest culprits when it comes to rorting foreign workers. In the last year, there have been three* separate government inquiries into the industry.

When does exploitation become a criminal matter? Forced labour offences were only introduced in Australia in 2013, however have not yet been tested in the courts.

Many workers aren’t fully aware of their employment rights and for most, speaking up about exploitation while on a temporary visa isn’t seen as an option.

But what happens when you do?

Is anyone being held accountable? And are we all benefiting from these practices?

Guests include:

Giri Sivaraman – Maurice Blackburn Lawyers
“This is effectively slavery. She’s not getting paid at all, she can’t go anywhere, she can’t leave.”

Heather Moore – Salvation Army
“The Global Slavery Index has just come out with a report estimating 4,300 people could be enslaved in Australia right now. We need to accept that we have a problem here.”

A/Prof. Joo-Cheong Tham – University of Melbourne
“It’s wrong morally. This is wrong legally.”

‘Natalie’
“I thought, ‘I have no contact with the outside world because there’s no signal on my phone, there’s no-one around me’ … I was so frightened.”

‘Sandra’
Jenny Brockie: “What were you paid for those three years of work?”
Sandra: “Nothing, I had no pay, no money.”

Sunny Liu
“I would say 80 per cent of my international student friends are all getting underpaid.”

Sana Ullah
Jenny Brockie: “You got an order for $12,000 in underpaid wages. Have you seen any of that money yet?”
Sana: “No.”

Pranay Alawala
“No one’s hiring me so maybe I’ll get deported … I don’t have a visa. So there’s no use of coming forward.”

Czar Amonsot
“We still feel good because Australia gives us a visa that we can live here and gives us a chance to live life here.”

Tuesdays at 8.30pm on SBS.

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