Crimes Legislation Amendment (Slavery, Slavery-like Conditions and People Trafficking) Bill 2012
Information about the Inquiry
On 19 June 2012 the Senate referred the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Slavery, Slavery-like Conditions and People Trafficking) Bill 2012 for inquiry and report.
The Bill amends the
Criminal Code Act 1995 (Criminal Code), the
Crimes Act 1914, the
Migration Act 1958, the
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the
Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to:
- establish new offences in the Criminal Code of forced labour, forced marriage, organ trafficking, and harbouring a victim;
- seek to ensure that the slavery offence applies to conduct which renders a person a slave, as well as conduct involving a person who is already a slave;
- extend the application of the existing offences of deceptive recruiting and sexual servitude so they apply to non-sexual servitude and all forms of deceptive recruiting;
- increase the penalties applicable to the existing debt bondage offences, to ensure they are in line with the serious nature of the offences;
- broaden the definition of exploitation under the Criminal Code to include all slavery-like practices;
- amend the existing definitions to ensure the broadest range of exploitative conduct is criminalised by the offences, including psychological oppression and the abuse of power or taking advantage of a person's vulnerability, and
- increase the availability of reparations to victims.
Submissions should be received by 31 July 2012. The reporting date is 13 September 2012.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia