NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner says modern slavery potential in aged care – yet significant government improvement needed for safeguards

NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner says modern slavery potential in aged care – yet significant government improvement needed for safeguards

NSW Anti-slavery commissioner, Dr James Cockayne sat down with ABC’s Stateline to discuss their growing concerns of modern slavery in Australia, particularly in NSW. Without comment from any of Australia’s peak aged care bodies, the interview saw only the NSW government’s perspective on the issue. Ageing Australia have confirmed that no one from the ABC reached out to them for comment. 

According to the state government modern slavery is defined as, “when one person or organisation treats another as if they own them.”

Dr Cockayne shared that his department is seeing industries across the state abusing vulnerable workers.

“People are treating others as if they have the power of ownership over them.” Continuing, “We see this happen when you have vulnerable people, who are not adequately protected by the law or institutional safeguards being exploited for personal and/or commercial gain.”

He shares that his department has noted modern slavery cases are not limited to one sector, “It is happening in a wide array of industries here in NSW, perhaps as many as 16,400 people are in modern slavery at the moment.”

He lists “horticulture, agriculture” and “meat processing” as industries of concern but pointedly has singled out modern slavery risks as being “increasingly in aged care.” However with such a complex set of factors connected to his point, from a federally run visa scheme, to independent third party hiring companies, “inadequate institutional safeguards”, the scope and contingent factors influencing that risk must and should be noted.

With a dedicated hotline, 1800 FREEDOM having been in operation for 18 months, he states that “four people a week in NSW, in modern slavery, are coming forward for our help.”

He asserts that a significant systemic factor facilitating modern slavery is the “problem of dodgy labour companies.” He highlights that of the highest populated states in Australia, “NSW is the largest that doesn’t license labour hire companies. Victoria and Queensland has it [licensing] but we don’t have it in NSW.”

Describing his department’s upcoming strategy focus he notes they are looking at industries where the conditions for modern slavery exist. Dr Cockayne says the NSW government, “sees risks wherever there are vulnerable people, operating in environments where they might get exploited and institutional safeguards aren’t adequate, if that’s what we see in aged care, then we think there is risk of modern slavery.” 

He continues, mentioning the move to rely on temporary migrant visas as a trend that increases modern slavery incidents in an industry. With the PALM scheme pivoting to be the visa solution to help fill employee spots in aged care, Dr Cockayne highlights his department’s new focus on the risk of modern slavery exploitation in aged care. The NSW Anti-slavery office has not released a report or data set in relation to their stated focus on exploitation in aged care.

To the aged care sector, Dr Cockayne says, “The complexities of working with that kind of population with particular vulnerabilities may not be adequately understood yet in the aged care sector and we’d like to see a much more concerted effort from the aged care sector to get on the front-foot and not repeat some of the mistakes we’ve seen in other sectors.”

To the thousands of dedicated aged care executives working to provide excellent care and a safe workplace, siloed government comments of this nature could not be more frustrating and unhelpful.

It must be noted that the PALM scheme is managed by the Federal government, particularly the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). With the Federal government noting, “DEWR and DFAT will continue to work closely with other responsible government agencies, including the Department of Home Affairs, Australian Border Force and the Fair Work Ombudsman to ensure the integrity of the scheme is maintained.”

Critically, as mentioned by Dr Cockayne, it is arguably vital that NSW adopts and enforces licensing legislation to align with safeguards already present in states like Victoria and Queensland when it comes to regulating labour hire companies. As evidenced by labour hire companies investigated by both the Ombudsman and DEWR, exploitative companies must be removed from operation.

Yet the investigation into Linx Employment is reactive. A robust coalition of Federal, state and private actors must systemically, comprehensively and consistently work to not only investigate after allegations of exploitation are raised but close off opportunities for bad actors to gain a foot-hold at all. As Dr Cockayne mentions, a factor providing oxygen to modern slavery is “inadequate institutional safeguards.” With worrying reports of PALM abuse by employers in sectors other than aged care, federally and state-wide, there are significant opportunities for safeguard improvement.

While there is a call from the NSW government for the aged care sector to be “on the front-foot”, for such an important matter, with a complex set of factors that bring the vulnerable into positions of exploitation, there must be a balance of public and private actor collaboration to establish robust systemic preventions and protections.