Modern Slavery Act Review

On the 25th of May, the Federal Government tabled its review of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). This Report was the result of a statutory review embedded in the legislation to occur three-years after the commencement of the Act.

Authored by Professor John McMillan AO, the report made 30 recommendations for the government to consider, with some of the key legislative recommendations including:

·????????To reduce the corporate revenue threshold for reporting from $100 million to $50 million for a reporting period.

·????????To oblige reporting entities to have a due diligence system in accordance with rules made under the Act.

·????????To incorporate offences for a reporting entity, including if it fails to produce a modern slavery statement and knowingly includes false information.??

·????????The establishment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner to overview the Act, noting that Federal Government has already committed to establishing such an office.

This review highlights the importance of due-diligence legislation in dealing with modern slavery. However, this type of legislation presents a challenge to policymakers who must balance competing interests between companies they wish to regulate and these companies’ competitiveness concerns. ?

Here at the Institute for International Trade, with our colleagues at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, and Edith Cowan University, Perth, we have sought to map the current and emerging regulatory approaches towards due diligence in key Western markets.

Our Values-Based Trade and Due Diligence Legislation project seeks to provide practical, evidence based analysis, of these approaches to develop proposals for policymakers regarding what considerations should be made when developing their own due diligence legislation.

If you would like to learn more about our work, please visit our website or get in touch with the project coordinator Professor Andreas Freytag, Visiting Professor Institute of International Trade.?