Petition: Child Labour

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell—Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) (12:26): I present a petition from my electorate that has been before the Petitions Committee of the parliament.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives draws to the attention of the House:

that since 2010 when the Government's action on child labour in the cocoa industry was "to support voluntary labelling and various activities undertaken through the United Nations" child labour in the cocoa industry has increased by 18% Request: We therefore ask the House to act to review this decision and to set a deadline for the importation of cocoa products involving the use of the worst forms of child labour. According to the 2014 Tulane University 2013/2014 Survey Research on Child Labour in West African Cocoa report there are now over 2 million children working in hazardous conditions in cocoa production. This is 18% more than in 2008/9.

We ask the house that is deadline includes developing and implementing industry-wide standards of public certification for imports of cocoa beans and their derivative products so that such items will not be allowed to be imported into Australia unless they are shown to have been grown and/or processed without any of the worst forms of child labour as listed in article three in ILO convention 182.

from 78 citizens

Petition received.

Mr HAWKE: Seventy-eight residents of the Mitchell federal electorate are drawing attention to child slave labour in the cocoa industry. They are calling on the government to put a forward date on banning the importation of cocoa products involving the use of the worst forms of child labour. I recommend this petition to the House.