News 66K views since yesterday

Bangladesh's garment workers return in 60 Minutes' factory investigation

The newly uploaded 2013 report connects Australian clothing orders with workers' living conditions and demands for safer factories after Rana Plaza.

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60 Minutes Australia Story of October 30, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of 60 Minutes Australia's most watched videos since yesterday, with 65,842 views.

Inside the Bangladesh factories producing millions of cheap clothing for the world | 60 Minutes

Things we can learn from the video

Press to jump

1:08A factory manager describes producing a million shirts monthly for Kmart.
2:44The report revisits Rana Plaza and meets relatives still searching for loved ones.
4:28Shirin Akhter argues that garment workers lack a voice in the industry.
5:17The programme presents a supplier list linking Bangladesh factories with Australian clothing retailers.
8:52A visit to a worker family's cramped, flooded accommodation shows living conditions during the 2013 investigation.
10:08The report examines factory safety commitments, including Kmart's announcement that it had signed the Bangladesh Accord.

A factory manager describes producing a million shirts a month for Kmart. Later, the camera enters cramped, flooded living quarters occupied by a garment worker's family. The distance between those two scenes is central to 60 Minutes Australia's investigation of the people making cheap clothes for overseas shoppers.

The upload is new, but the reporting is not. Labelled "Rag Trade (2013)", it examines Bangladesh's garment industry in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza factory collapse. Its wages, company responses and factory conditions belong to that period, rather than documenting conditions today.

At the collapse site, the report meets grieving relatives still searching for loved ones. According to the programme, more than a thousand workers died. Labour activist Shirin Akhter describes an industry in which workers have little power to challenge their treatment: "They don't have a voice."

The investigation also follows the supply chain to Australia. It presents what it describes as a leaked supplier list connecting Bangladesh factories with major Australian retailers, while Oxfam's Helen Szoke argues that low prices must be considered alongside workers' safety.

The report drew about 66,000 views since yesterday. Its closing section turns from questions about sourcing to concrete commitments: the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, and a Kmart announcement confirming that it had become a signatory. Akhter's demand is for retailers to do more than ask questions about the people making their clothes.

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