The US State Department has urged Australia to “increase efforts to investigate and hold accountable foreign diplomats” in Australia suspected of trafficking.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus has announced the federal government will set aside $8 million over four years to fund the new role of Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
The bill establishing the role has been introduced to Parliament.
The commissioner will investigate modern slavery in Australia and overseas, focusing on exploitation such as human trafficking, forced labour, and forced marriages.
Mr. Dreyfus told Parliament that “modern slavery is present in Australia,” citing the case of a Melbourne couple who “secretly enslaved an elderly woman in their suburban home for close to a decade.”
In that case, Angie Yeh Ling Liaw, 29, and Chee Kit Chong, 44—also known as Max Chong—were charged in June with slavery-related offences in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
The Point Cook couple allegedly kept the woman as a slave in their home until medical staff contacted police with concerns she might be a victim of human trafficking.
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