An Introduction to the Australian Modern Slavery Act
By Rachel Dryden
Following the lead of the UK, Australia has adopted our own Modern Slavery Act in response to growing need to provide transparency and accountability for business supply chains. This Commonwealth Act came into effect on 1 Jan 2019, requiring businesses to create a publicly available Modern Slavery Statement annually.
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153
Big businesses operating in Australia with annual revenue of more than $100 million are now legally required to report on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chain, and what is being done to address these risks. Businesses with annual revenue of less than $100 million operating in Australia may choose to report risks on a voluntary basis, in order to demonstrate leadership on this issue. These reports are approved by the business board of directors and signed by the business principal management to hold top management to account.
The purpose of the Act is to address the trafficking of humans, particularly women and children, as well as the worst forms of child labour as defined by the International Labour Organization Convention. This includes the sale and trafficking of children forced into labour for:
- Armed conflict;
- Child prostitution;
- Illicit activities such as drug trafficking; and
- Work likely to harm the health, safety and morals of children.
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C182
Clearly, we want our Australian business to be significantly addressing the risk of financially supporting such atrocities against the most vulnerable groups of our population. These risks can be addressed by critically assessing all the components of business supply chain in order to by publicly accountable for decisions, processes, operations and practices in place in the business. This accountability encompasses not only the Australian component of the business supply chain, but also the international component of the supply chain in order to accurately assess the whole life cycle of the business operations.
Although the Modern Slavery Act at the Commonwealth level does not currently enforce penalties for businesses with annual revenue of more than $100 million who do not lodge a Modern Slavery Statement, a free to access publicly available Modern Slavery Statements Register can be utilised to decry those businesses who fail to provide their Statement. Additionally, these Statements can also showcase where businesses are demonstrating leadership on the issue of modern slavery through best practice in decision-making on supply chain management.
As participants in the global economy – through our role as consumers, working in Australian businesses, as well as our transactions between businesses – now that modern slavery has been drawn into our awareness we are obligated to act as best we can in a way that reduces the harm we could cause to others.
This is a sustainable practice.
Inspiration:
https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/risk/articles/modern-slavery-act-2018.html
https://edgeenvironment.com/australian-business-time-get-act-together/
https://edgeenvironment.com/start-modern-slavery-risk-assessment/
