Federal Parliament Hears of Our Students’ Fight Against Child Slavery

21 October 2008

The mobilisation of students from Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula as part of a campaign against people trafficking and child slavery in West Africa has been highlighted in Parliament by local Federal MP Bruce Billson.

“It is hard to imagine that an international effort to guard against ‘mistreatment’ could be so interwoven with the ‘treat’ of chocolate,” Mr Billson told parliament.

Bruce Billson MP (VIC) congratulates Frankston High School student Emily Roycroft for organising the local ‘Don’t Trade Lives’ forum.

The Member for Dunkley was seconding a private members motion put up by South Australian Senator Chris Pyne, which was designed to “shine a light” on the plight of hundreds of thousands of West African children, who are forced into back-breaking labour on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast and Ghana, which produce almost three quarters of the cocoa beans used in chocolate.

The motion put forward in Parliament urged the Prime Minister to ensure that chocolate offered for sale in vending machines in offices of Australian Government departments, is ‘fair trade certified’.

“The exploited children often face dangerous, unprotected and unrelenting work, with the risk of being owned and traded as a bonded labourer, tending the cantankerous crop in a unique, extreme environment instead of attending school,” Mr Billson said.

Mr Billson commended World Vision Australia for its ‘Don’t Trade Lives’ campaign to highlight this “grave concern” and also the work of the Oaktree Foundation.

In early May Mr Billson met with young local ambassadors and allies of World Vision and the Oaktree Foundation, (including Lizzie, Sage, Tillie, Ella, Stacey and others) to discuss the campaign to end slavery.

“Year 12 Frankston High School student Emily Roycroft led the Mornington Peninsula ‘Don’t Trade Lives’ campaign by organising a forum at Frankston High in conjunction with the student VGen vision group of World Vision. Having participated in this forum, I delivered a petition to the Confectionery Manufacturers Association,” he said.

“We know the supply chains are long and opaque, but it is not too much to ask that a non-essential foodstuff like chocolate is produced without slavery,” Mr Billson said.