User:Aemilius Adolphin/Slavery draft

Convicts
Many of the convicts transported to the Australian penal colonies were treated as slave labour. William Hill, an officer aboard the Second Fleet, wrote that "the slave traffic is merciful compared with what I have seen in this fleet [...] the more they can withhold from the unhappy wretches, the more provisions they have to dispose of at a foreign market, and the earlier in the voyage they die, the longer they can draw the deceased's allowance to themselves". Once the convicts arrived in Australia they were subjected to the system of "assigned service", whereby they were leased out to private citizens and placed entirely under their control, often forced to work in chain gangs. The unwillingness of wealthy landowners to give up this cheap source of labour was a key factor in why penal transportation persisted for so long, especially in Van Diemen's Land where "assigned service" continued to be widespread until the 1850s.

Modern slavery
According to the Global Slavery Index, there were approximately 15,000 people living in illegal "conditions of modern slavery" in Australia in 2016. During the 2015–16 financial year, 169 alleged human trafficking and slavery offences were referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), including alleged instances of forced marriage, sexual exploitation, and forced labour. As of 2017, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had prosecuted 19 individuals for slavery-related offences since 2004, with several other prosecutions ongoing.

The introduction of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 into Australian law was partly based upon concerns of slavery being evident in the agricultural sector.Blah blah