Today in Parliament, Abigail gave notice of a motion calling out the failure to establish a labour hire licensing scheme leaving NSW exposed to modern slavery conditions and the exploitation of migrant workers.

Abigail said:

I give notice that on the next sitting day I will move: 

1. That this House notes that: 

   • Investigations conducted by ABC Four Corners, broadcast on Monday 3 August 2026, are the latest to show the prevalence of modern slavery conditions being faced by migrant workers in Australia, with Australia’s growing reliance on temporary migrant labour fuelling a booming labour hire industry, with contractors sitting between employers and workers, often recruiting, transporting and housing them,
     

   • The NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner, James Cockayne, has repeatedly highlighted the regulatory gaps that enable unscrupulous labour hire syndicates to prey on vulnerable temporary migrant workers, including in the 2024 report ‘Be Our Guests: Addressing urgent modern slavery risks for temporary migrant workers in rural and regional New South Wales’ and ‘Building Freedom Together: NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner’s Annual Report for the Financial Year 2024–2025’. The Commissioner has made the following recommendation ‘Workers are vulnerable to dodgy labour hire companies, some of which are moving to NSW from other states because there is no licensing scheme here. The NSW Government should, by the end of 2025, announce a plan to ensure effective regulation of labour hire companies in NSW. This could involve commitment to a single national hire regulation framework, or a homegrown solution. Given the risks vulnerable workers face right now, the NSW Government should, as an interim solution, immediately introduce a mutual recognition arrangement, requiring labour hire companies to be licensed in either Victoria or Queensland,’
     

   • The Anti-Slavery Commissioner has today publicly released a further public submission titled ‘We are all pretending not to see the elephant in the room: Addressing the system of labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley.’ This report details, amongst other things, techniques used by syndicates to evade detection and enforcement, including the active intimidation of producers, workers and community actions that speak out too loudly against them or whom they perceive may expose them. According to the report, intimidation of workers appears endemic amongst the workforce controlled by these syndicates. In the conclusion the report states ‘Producers in the region, and those that buy berries from them, have real questions to answer about what they knew, and when, about the mistreatment of workers by the labour hire syndicates on which they rely. Have they turned a blind eye to ongoing signs of exploitation and modern slavery? Government agencies and political representatives also have questions to answer. Local stakeholders, and external actors, including the Fair Work Ombudsman and union actors, have been drawing attention to systemic labour law violations in the region for many years, yet systemic exploitation persists. Local stakeholders recount frequent complaints to local councils, police, political representatives and regulatory bodies, with no meaningful systemic response reported. There is no doubt that the absence of any system of labour hire licensing in NSW is a central contributing factor to modern slavery risks in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley. I have urged the NSW Government to introduce labour hire licensing for several years. The lack of urgency in efforts to introduce a licensing scheme suggests a failure to understand that modern slavery is happening right now, in this state – wreaking havoc in the lives of vulnerable workers,’
     

   • The McKell Institute’s July 2026 report ‘Exploitation Magnet: Why the absence of labour hire licensing in NSW is attracting unscrupulous employment practices’ found that NSW’s absence of a labour hire licensing scheme ‘gives bad faith operators an incentive to relocate from the jurisdictions that have one. That risk is sharpened by the state's exposure in its agricultural regions, with the Coffs Coast and the Riverina in particular long associated with widespread breaches of labour law.’ The report finds that as many as 63 businesses operating in NSW have had their labour hire licenses cancelled in either Victoria or Queensland, yet remain open for business in NSW,
     

   • Numerous other reports and pieces of research have made similar findings and recommendations, including ‘Off the Books: Inside Australia’s Hidden System of Migrant Worker Exploitation’ from the Migrant Justice Institute, and ‘Closing the front door: Labour hire reform in NSW’ from Giles Fryer of the Law Society of NSW,
     

   • Evidence from Queensland and Victoria shows the efficacy of labour hire licensing as a way of curtailing labour exploitation, and
     

   • Efforts to establish a national labour hire licensing scheme have not materialised, leaving NSW exposed.
     

2. That this House calls on the NSW Labor Government to:
   

   • establish a standalone labour hire licensing scheme for NSW during this current parliamentary term, and
     

   • In the interim, immediately introduce a mutual recognition arrangement, requiring labour hire companies to be licensed in either Victoria or Queensland.

4 August 2026