The Catholic agency providing remediation to victims of modern slavery has called for penalties against organisations that fail to comply with Australia’s Modern Slavery Act. Source: ACAN.
Domus 8.7 Lived Experience Lead Moe Turaga said the Albanese Government needs to get serious about holding to account organisations that have not implemented basic modern slavery risk management.
“The Modern Slavery Act has been in place for seven years now. Yet there are still large companies in high-risk sectors who are ignoring the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains,” Mr Turaga said.
“While many companies have engaged with the Act in good faith, too many have overlooked their reporting responsibilities.”
There are no penalties in the Modern Slavery Act for failure to report or for poor-quality reporting.
“This cannot continue. At Domus 8.7, we see first-hand the misery caused by some of the most extreme forms of labour exploitation,” Mr Turaga said.
“Seven years is long enough to establish a culture of compliance. We now need significant consequences for organisations who choose not to comply.
“The Australian Securities and Investment Commission can impose penalties of up to $16.5 million on companies who breach corporate laws. Non-compliance with the Modern Slavery Act should attract the same level of penalties.”
The federal Attorney-General’s Department this week resumed consultations with industry stakeholders on ways to strengthen Australia’s Modern Slavery Act.
Ahead of the consultations, the Office of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner released a position paper that substantially adopts three recommendations advocated by the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network and Domus 8.7.
The Anti-Slavery Commissioner is proposing a two-year phase-in period for all reporting entities and a graduated approach to enforcement.
Domus 8.7 Executive Officer Alison Rahill has welcomed the Commissioner’s blueprint to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act.
“I applaud the Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s recommendations, and his pragmatic, risk-based focus to continuous improvement in business compliance. This approach reflects how the ACAN program has measured continuous improvement across our 50 member organisations,” Ms Rahill said.
Catholic organisations in the ACAN program have published baseline data on members’ anti-slavery activities for the last four years, including referrals for remediation.
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