Two Decades of Advocacy Bring Success
ACRATH has just finished its 19th annual advocacy campaign week at Parliament House in Canberra, confident that key ‘asks’ are being considered by government, including further work on the right of any victim of modern slavery to access compensation for the crime that was committed against them in Australia.
The 2024 advocacy team Frances Hayes pbvm – WA, Ange Hart – SA, Moira Coombs – East Coast, and Carmel Shaw and Executive Officer Christine Carolan from the National Office, also asked decision makers to consider:
- Increased support and protection for seasonal workers working in Australia on PALMS, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme
- Greater protection for international students in Australia
- Including children in their own right as victim/survivors of modern slavery
- How our microcredential work with Flinders and UniSA can be funded as an ongoing resource.
Christine said during the 2024 advocacy campaign, ACRATH reached out to Minister Tony Burke, the Home Affairs Minister about the need for Permanent Residency for a young woman ACRATH is supporting in our Companionship Program.
“We need the visa categories accessible to victim/survivors to be re-visited. Minister Burke took our request very seriously; he has met with us almost every year since 2006 and he knows that we bring to him stories of real people, people vulnerable to exploitation who need government action. We have joined with Anti-Slavery Australia and met with senior staff on several occasions online and in person and we are hopeful of a positive outcome both for the particular woman we are supporting and for the accessibility of the visa as a whole,” Christine said.
“I believe this access to decision makers is possible because we have built advocacy credibility and our networking capability over these past 19 years. I am very hopeful that we can get this work done and achieve the goals we set ourselves.”
One unusual point we raised with government in the 2024 advocacy week, was one of congratulations! The team acknowledged the Federal Government’s work, in collaboration with civil society, to bring in a large number of recent very positive changes, including:
- the establishment of Australia’s first federal Anti-Slavery Commissioner
- the introduction of an additional referral pathway to the STPP, the Support for Trafficked People Program
- the introduction of the Forced Marriage Specialist Support Program
- the introduction of the workplace justice visa
- the introduction of new laws and regulations to enhance the rights of seasonal workers.
Christine said the improved supports and protections for victim/survivors of human trafficking was the result of years of advocacy and collaboration.
“An additional referral pathway to the Support for Trafficked People Program has been a significant achievement. ACRATH is a part of the NGO network at the National Roundtable. We started meeting together quite a few years ago, and soon realised that the more we collaborated, the more likely we were to achieve important outcomes! Last year we all committed to working about 4 hours each week on a project together to develop a model for an Additional Pathway. It was hard work, and we didn’t always see eye to eye, but we overcame our difficulties and were able together to present a viable model to the Australian government. This model we developed together is very close to the version now being trialled … after 19 years of asking for the government to de-link the services for people trafficked into Australia from a criminal justice response, we now have a trial model,” Christine said.
“Another important aspect of our advocacy campaign is the direct benefit to ACRATH. In working as an ACRATH team in Canberra we build knowledge and competence amongst our membership, so when team members return to their regional groups, they bring an awareness of current ACRATH work and hopefully a confidence in their role of bringing about change.” “The 2024 ACRATH advocacy team met for team meetings during our time in Canberra. We kept commenting to each other at how great we felt; we felt heard and respected by so many MPs and departmental officers with whom we met. We feel part of a process of change-making.”
