Victorian politicians were given a wake-up call at a recent Speaker’s Breakfast when told modern slavery is almost certainly happening in every electorate in Victoria.
The Speaker’s Breakfast at Parliament House was organised by Legislative Assembly Speaker Maree Edwards MP. The event was part of a series of breakfasts highlighting key community issues and the organisations actively addressing them.
Ms Edwards has worked closely with ACRATH over the past 18 months planning the event, learning about modern slavery and listening to stories from ACRATH members.
No matter what electorate you belong to, there is human trafficking and modern slavery in your electorate.
ACRATH’s anti-slavery work was initially highlighted in 2023, when Victoria’s Health Minister and Member for Macedon Mary-Anne Thomas urged all members of Parliament to make their electorate offices slavery-free, starting with tea, coffee and chocolate. She promoted the collaboration with ACRATH during a ‘Slavery Free Kitchen’ initiative and campaign.
‘I am certain that no one in this place wants to drink beverages where there’s slave labour in the supply chains that bring them to us. It’s a simple and small action that can make a significant difference,’ Ms Thomas told the Victorian Parliament during her member’s address on 23 February 2023.
During the Speaker’s Breakfast, ACRATH representatives highlighted ACRATH’s efforts in the community, focusing on their programs and initiatives aimed at eliminating modern slavery in Australia and highlighting the importance of actions to prevent modern slavery and to support victims/survivors.
ACRATH’s mission to eliminate modern slavery in Australia includes tackling issues such as forced marriage, exploitation of migrant workers, and slavery within the supply chains of local shops, markets and supermarkets.
We look to train and educate people to notice and respond to behavioural indicators of forced marriage.
ACRATH member Marg Leahy told those assembled for the breakfast, ‘No matter what electorate you belong to, there is human trafficking and modern slavery in your electorate’.
Megan Bourke, a member of ACRATH’s working group on forced marriage, noted that forced marriage is one of the most highly reported forms of modern slavery across Australia and in Victoria. ‘ACRATH’s response to this is a very human perspective for a start, in that we look to train and educate people to notice and respond to behavioural indicators of forced marriage, to look for people who may be in a forced marriage or at threat of being in a forced marriage,’ she said.
ACRATH advocate Melissa Halliday told the story of a survivor of modern slavery who was identified in a Melbourne hospital not long ago.
‘Maria’* was an older woman who was picked up by police after sleeping rough in a park, she said. Severely undernourished, she was taken to an emergency department in the CBD.
‘She was fearful, skittish. She had physical injuries that had been neglected,’ Ms Halliday explained. ‘Her case may have been interpreted as one of challenged mental health or homelessness had it not been for the social worker and the nurse who had actually undertaken ACRATH modern slavery training. They saw her situation a little differently and chose to look a little deeper.’
As they cared for Maria, these clinicians—knowing the signs of modern slavery—‘came to believe that she had been experiencing domestic servitude. They referred her to the Australian Federal Police and the case was prosecuted as such,’ Ms Halliday said.
Following the presentation, ACRATH members and staff engaged in meaningful discussions with the MPs—an opportunity for them to discuss concerns in their own electorates and to find out more about ACRATH initiatives that support and identify victim/survivors of modern slavery.
*Not her real name.
Banner image: ACRATH member Marg Leahy, Mary-Anne Thomas MP, Shaun Leane MP and Iwan Walters MP at the Speaker’s Breakfast at Parliament House. (Photo courtesy of ACRATH.)
