A review of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) was released on 25 May. This comprehensive report covered three key questions:
- Can a Modern Slavery Act be effective in combatting modern slavery?
- Could the Act be more effective if changes were made to ow it is framed and administered?
- Is the law being taken seriously?
The review put forward 30 recommendations, including:
- Amending the Act to provide that a reporting entity is an entity that has a consolidated revenue of at least $50 million for the reporting period (currently revenue is $100 million).
- Adding new mandatory reporting criteria that would require an entity to report on:
- modern slavery incidents or risks identified by the entity during the reporting year
- grievance and complaint mechanisms made available by the entity to staff members and other people, and
- internal and external consultation undertaken by the entity during the reporting year on modern slavery risk management.
- The Modern Slavery Act be amended to introduce penalties for specific non-compliance
- Amendments and recommendations for the role and duties of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner and executive administration of the Modern Slavery Act.
