Minister for Foreign Affairs
Senator the Hon Penny Wong
Attorney-General
Cabinet Secretary
The Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP
Joint media release
Today, on World Day against Trafficking in Persons, we reaffirm the Australian Government’s commitment to tackling these abhorrent crimes.
This year’s global theme is to ‘reach every victim of trafficking, leave no one behind’.
The Government is committed to bolstering our efforts to counter human trafficking and all forms of modern slavery, working with partners at home and abroad to disrupt these global crimes and enhance support for victims and survivors.
To mark this day, the Attorney General’s Department alongside the Australian Federal Police and civil society partners is delivering a national social media awareness campaign to encourage us all to ‘Look a little deeper. Human trafficking happens in Australia’.
The campaign will be translated into multiple languages to boost its reach. In particular, it aims to raise awareness of the false promises used by perpetrators to deceive and recruit victims into modern slavery.
The Albanese Government is delivering an ambitious policy program to address the insidious scourge of human trafficking and modern slavery. This includes:
- $24.3 million boost to the Support for Trafficked People Program over the next four years;
- $8 million over four years to establish Australia’s first federal Anti-Slavery Commissioner;
- $2.73 million over the next two years through the Modern Slavery Grants program;
- $1 million to United Nations trusts supporting victims of trafficking rehabilitate and recover;
- Up to $24 million of Official Development Assistance over the past financial year; and
- Support for the first facility dedicated to combatting trafficking in persons in Southeast Asia.
Our efforts have been recognised globally, with Australia maintaining a Tier One ranking in the US Government’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report for 20 years in a row.
Australia continues to speak out on the issue in global forums, including as a co-chair of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime.
