Australia’s anti-slavery commissioner has called for tough new laws forcing Australian companies to take slavery in their supply chains seriously. Source: ABC News.
Chris Evans said existing laws, which only required disclosure of slavery risks, had proven too weak, with too many Australian companies taking a “tick-a-box” approach to compliance.
Mr Evans works with governments, businesses and other stakeholders to prevent and respond to slavery, including forced labour and debt bondage (when people are forced to work to repay debts).
He warned Australia was falling behind key markets such as Europe when it came to stamping out slavery, saying the country was already becoming a dumping ground for slave-made goods that could not be sold elsewhere.
The lack of effective Australian laws would also make it more difficult to sell our goods into markets with strong anti-slavery laws, he said.
“There’s pressure on us to do better anyway, particularly for those companies who trade with Europe or whose goods go to Europe, but increasingly we’re seeing [the] UK, New Zealand [and] others looking to move as well, and effectively it’s time for us to move,” he said.
The anti-slavery commissioner declined to speak about specific cases but said that while some companies were doing a good job finding and eliminating slavery in their supply chains, a lot of companies were “not taking it seriously”.
“Effectively, the current law is voluntary,” Mr Evans said.
“People are asked to report but they don’t actually have any penalties if they don’t report and there’s no measurement of the quality of what’s done.
“The difference between the best and the worst is huge.
“Some just give us one page … saying, ‘Our company has a very strong policy, we’re opposed to slavery, thank you very much.’ That’s not what the law was about.”
In a submission to a government review, Mr Evans said Australian companies should have a duty to perform due diligence to detect and combat slavery in their supply chains.
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Anti-slavery commissioner calls for tougher laws amid forced labour concerns for Ansell and Kmart (By Ben Butler, ABC News)
