The federal government has proposed law reform to stop workplaces breaching their responsibilities, which will be introduced to parliament when it next meets.

The proposed changes would make it a criminal offence to coerce someone into breaching their visa conditions, stop employers from hiring people on temporary visas where they have exploited migrants in the past, and increase penalties for employers who do the wrong thing…

Associate Professor Bassina Farbenblum, Co-Executive Director of the Migrant Justice Institute, and UNSW Faculty of Law & Justice, said the reform "could be a game-changer for stopping the exploitation of migrant workers in Australia - if they are effectively designed".

She added: “For the first time, migrant workers could safely address wage theft and walk away from employers who exploit them without risking their visa.

"Dodgy employers will no longer be able to assume that international students and other migrants will suffer in silence if they’re underpaid or abused."…

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said past indifference to a workforce reliance on low-paid, temporary migrant workers who were routinely exploited would end with the Albanese government…