The guest speaker at our Club on Tuesday 10 March was the MD of Nineteen Consulting Chris Crewther.
Chris was the Member of Parliament for the Federal seat of Dunkley from 2016 to 2019.
Chris addressed our meeting on the question of Modern Slavery.
In Parliament Chris was Chair of the Foreign and Aid Sub-Committee, under the Joint Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs. Defence and Trade.
In his role as Chair, Chris led an all party sub-committee that inquired into Australia establishing legislation to tackle Modern Slavery.
The sub-committee handed down its final report in December 2017.
Chris informed us that approximately 40 million people across the globe are classified as modern slaves. In Australia there are around 15000 people who fit into this disturbing category.
Modern slavery refers to people who are in situations such as forced labour or are in areas where they are exploited including domestic work, agriculture and other service areas where they received meagre or no payment.
A number of people, especially women and children, are in forced sexual exploitation while others are in forced marriages.
Resulting from the inquiry, in June 2018 a Modern Slavery Bill was introduced into the Parliament and in September 2018 legislation was passed in the House of Representatives.
The Bill passed through the Senate in December 2018 and the new Modern Slavery Act came into force on 1 January 2019
Following passage of the legislation in Australia a number of initiatives were undertaken in an effort to stamp out these evil and unlawful practices.
Chris completed his presentation by answering a number of questions from very interested members of our Club.
Linda Morris, Chris Crewther and President Ross