A beacon of hope that needs leadership: The Modern Slavery Bill

On a cold Wednesday July evening at the Sydney Institute, the then Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, Alex Hawke MP stood up and delivered a clear moral case for Australian business to ‘ask the question: is there slavery in our supply chain?’

Evoking our Australian food loving culture, he made it personal:

It is a cold, clear night tonight here by the Harbour where modern Australia was conceived. A perfect night to head out for a meal at one of our city’s world-renowned restaurants, perhaps, for fish.

Imagine it now, as we order the Yellowfin Tuna. The first mouthful is absolutely delicious. But what if we were then to learn that the fisherman who caught that same fish we are eating is a slave?

It is encouraging to see in Mr Hawke’s speech on the introduction of the Modern Slavery Bill that he sees government, business and civil society being in firm agreement: transparency about modern slavery is good for everyone.

And Stopping modern slavery must involve everyone.

This is because everyone in the Australian economy is tacitly involved. As Harvard Professor Siddarth Kara puts so well:

“The immensity and pervasiveness of slavery in the modern era is driven by the ability of the exploiters to generate substantial profits at almost no real risk through the callous exploitation of a global subclass of humanity whose degradation is tacitly accepted by every participant in the economic system that consumes their suffering”[1]

The Modern Slavery Bill will benefit businesses who are already undertaking due diligence by highlighting their good work.

It helps those companies potentially overwhelmed by the complexity of their supply chains by providing them a basic framework to start from and best practice examples to follow.

It allows consumers to use their voice and their wallets to tell companies that they expect action on modern slavery.

And most importantly, it means that the men, women and children currently oppressed by slavery can have hope that their suffering will not remain hidden.

The minister spoke specifically about ‘business partnering with civil society and government to achieve change’ and seeing Australia demonstrating ‘clear leadership’ on modern slavery. He cast a vision of ‘supply partnerships’.

Such a concept could create a rigorous and sustained collaboration between business, civil society and government that would shrink the space for traffickers to conduct their business model. There is still a case for an independent federal Anti-Slavery Commissioner to ensure accountability for big business, as is already in place in NSW. But the intent of the legislation is in the right direction!

But how will we really shift the needle on slavery in our own backyard?

Today, 60% of the world’s victims of slaves in the Asia-Pacific region.

Demonstrated moral leadership by leading Australian business people like Andrew Forrest in our region will drive change. But business also needs to know the burden is not all on them.

While corporations have a strong role to play in reversing incidence of trafficking in global supply chains, the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights places the responsibility squarely on the government to protect individuals from slavery and exploitation in its first foundational principle:

“States must protect against human rights abuse within their territory and/or jurisdiction by third parties, including business enterprises. This requires taking appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress such abuse through effective policies, legislation, regulations and adjudication”

International Justice Mission’s Justice Review: A journal on justice and protection for the poor calls this critical component out:

‘In countries where there are weak regulatory conditions, local governments need to be supported by civil society and business because labour slavery is quite different from other ethical issues, such as environmental or safety issues. Labour slavery— bonded labour, forced child labour and trafficked labour—is a violent crime. Trafficked labour is not an unfortunate, accidental outcome; rather, it is the actual purpose of individuals who are profiting from misery and are doing so without fear of apprehension.

Governments of slavery-burdened countries need help. Corporations and international donors should prioritize investment in functioning law enforcement, including anti-trafficking police units, special prosecutors and legal assistance for abused workers.’

This is what supply partnerships can look like – business and civil society working together to root out modern slavery both the Australian demand end and the supply side.

The measures taken by the Federal Government have opened up a new opportunity for cross sector partnerships that equips businesses to identify and eradicate slavery in their supply chains.

And there is a critical role for the Australian Church.

The time for those in our Australian community who often look back to their 19th century Abolitionist forebears like William Wilberforce - the Christian pastors scattered throughout this country - to begin to recover their moral leadership on slavery.

As Abraham Lincoln, who was shaped by the teaching of Christian pastors who spoke out (at great risk) against slavery in Southern America said, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

There is a huge opportunity for all members of the Australian community, civil society to business, to say yes to ending the modern slave trade. We have seen in history, and in our region that slavery is vast and brutal.

But it is stoppable.

In 2010, International Justice Mission, released a report on how it saw a 79-86% reduction in the prevalence of the sexual slavery of minors in the Philippines. The business model of child sex trafficking became impractical to continue because people acted.

This our hope. When laws on paper are enforced, the profitable criminal enterprise that slavery is, collapses.

But before we can see change in our region and world, we must ourselves a very important question:

Will we hear the cry for freedom from those millions of slaves in our region, trapped behind a wall of violence and hidden in plain sight?

[1] Siddarth Kara, Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017)