"outrageous" me thinks not, convict transportation varied from 7 years to life. The reality was very few of those transported to Australia ever returned to England. Of the 162,000 transported between 1788 and 1867 about 40,000 were Irish political prisoners. So much for the, "experiment in reform" I suppose it reformed their political views. A choice between Australia and England as it was at that time, Australia wins hands down.

After the American Civil War economic conditions declined for Negroes in the Deep South, not reaching pre-war parity until the 1930's. Lynching and burning of negro property by red necks and racists become common post civil war.

"The letters patent specifically forbade slavery in Australia" that's particularly good news. There is more than one kind of slavery, economic slavery is as bad, or even worse if you have a benevolent master as a physical slave.

I would like to see proof of this "slavery" in Australia. Putting quotation marks around what some activist says doesn't necessarily mean that the activist is correct; it could just be her opinion.

The “link” reveals a lot of what appears to be hearsay and sensationalism to sell books. Were any of the “slaves” in Australia owned by the people who employed them, or were they merely subjected to working conditions and pay arrangements that appal us now, many years later.

There is a massive difference between enslavement and working conditions that appear abhorrent to us in the 21st. Century.

Foxy, that definition of slavery is so broad as to be meaningless. On that definition we were all enslaved during the COVID panic when we were confined to our homes and forced to take medical interventions.

I don't condone any of that, but to define it as slavery is nonsense.

On your definition of slavery it continues to this day in every country in the world.

What genius is going to work out which Arab tribe is going to pay how
much to the decendants of the Arab's slaves over the last couple of thousand years ?

One example of early slavery in Australia is John Macarthur who arrived from England in 1790. Macarthur was illegally granted free Aboriginal land and free convict labour to develop it at Parramatta in 1793 by the commander of the British occupation. Later Macarthur was illegally granted even greater amounts of Aboriginal land in the Camden district, all of which was cleared and developed by free convict labour. How does that differ from slavery in the Deep South of the US, other than Macarthur's slaves being totally a free acquisition and mostly white, while the US slaves were bought and paid for and black, by not much!

Convict Labour is what should be re-introduced for those who destroy what others have created. Perhaps a convict version of Adult Crime do Adult Work ?

Why is it that the past is always used with modern hindsight ? The argument of "free convict labour" doesn't appear to include that the convicts were fed. Money ? What would a convict do with money in 1825 inland Australia ? Same with the Indigenous. Food & clothing was provided by whoever had convicts working for them. There were more non-convicts who existed in much tougher conditions & they never committed any crimes.
We now have way more people engaged in crime yet they're not deemed criminal because they pretend to "work" but receive money for nothing in return when still young. Many receive more for achieving nothing than those who do.
The past is the past, make the present & better past instead of causing friction for the sake of causing unnecessary friction ! Those very people who exploit a bad past are now hell-bent & creating yet another bad past !