Australia’s first Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Chris Evans, has warned Australia is at risk of becoming a “dumping ground” for goods linked to forced labour, in an exclusive interview with the Guardian Australia.
Comparing Australia’s Modern Slavery Act to other jurisdictions, the former Labor senator and minister said there were “blind spots” in Australia’s efforts, which leaves the country vulnerable to becoming a “global laggard”.
Evans pointed to the efforts of the US, Canada and EU, which have banned goods that are made with, or suspected of being made with, forced labour – a step that Australia has still yet to take.
“Not only are we not keeping up to the standard of acceptable corporate responsibility, but we’re also now running the risk of being a dumping ground because of the fact that we have the lowest level of prevention of goods made with forced labour coming into our country,” Evans told the Guardian Australia.
He also pointed to Australia’s low rates of identification and prosecution of offences as significant issues, emphasising that the Modern Slavery Act 2018 is “light-touch” legislation and has failed to progress from that “first tentative step”.
“Some people like to comfort themselves by thinking, well, that means we don’t have much of a problem here, but that’s nonsense,” he added.
“What it means is we haven’t been very good at identifying those people who are being exploited, and secondly there are real issues about prosecutions in Australia and the amount of time it takes to get a case to court.”
At present, the Modern Slavery Act mandates that only large businesses earning over $100 million annually report on risks, but imposes no obligation to mitigate risks or face consequences for failure to act.
According to the Guardian, estimates reveal between 400 and 1,000 companies who are obliged to report on modern slavery in their practices or supply chains are refusing to do so.
Evans said while some companies are reporting comprehensively, others are “quite frankly taking the mickey” by putting in two pages of ‘we oppose modern slavery’, which he claims is “regarded as sufficient to pass muster.”
He argues that Australia’s modern slavery laws need to transition from a reporting mandate to a “due diligence” model – which would see companies required to act to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains – while the introduction of penalties is also overdue.
However, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland defended the current framework, describing modern slavery as “abhorrent”.
“Australia has strong laws and a comprehensive response to combat modern slavery practices, such as human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices,” she said.
“The Albanese Government is committed to continuing our efforts to strengthen our response.”
Elsewhere, a new study by Oxfam Australia and the Human Rights Law Centre has found significant risks of modern slavery within the supply chains of Australian fashion brands sourcing from Bangladesh.
The report, Unravelling Exploitation, draws on over a dozen focus groups, key informant interviews and surveys of more than 400 garment workers.
Over a quarter of workers (28 percent) reported experiences of forced labour, while almost all (95 percent) earn less than a standard living wage, with this figure rising to 100 percent for women.
More than 20 percent of workers have faced wage delays or deductions, with many reporting job insecurity, coercion, physical violence, verbal abuse and, in some cases (almost a quarter), the use of fingerprint-based systems for blacklisting.
The research also uncovered widespread evidence of children being employed in subcontracted settings.
Reflecting Chris Evans’s stance, Oxfam and the Human Rights Law Centre have called on the Australian Government to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act, requiring companies to take action to address modern slavery risks, with penalties for non-compliance.
The two organisations are also advocating for the introduction of new responsible business laws that require companies to undertake human rights and environmental due diligence, plus a ban on imports made with forced labour.
Oxfam Australia Campaign and Advocacy Lead, Nina Crawley, said the report findings are shocking but not surprising.
“Our research serves as a stark reminder that the clothes Australians buy may come at the cost of someone else’s safety and dignity,” she said.
“For too long, Australian fashion brands have relied on opaque and exploitative supply chains to maximise profit. Workers must be placed at the centre of reforms to build a fashion industry where exploitation has no place. We urgently need strong, enforceable laws to hold them accountable and protect workers from harm.”
Human Rights Law Centre’s Associate Legal Director, Freya Dinshaw, said the Albanese Government must do more to ensure that the people who make the clothes we wear can live and work in safety and dignity.
“We need strong holistic laws that require companies to investigate and prevent serious abuses like modern slavery in their supply chains, and impose hard consequences if they don’t. Australia must also ban imported goods made with forced labour so they don’t end up on our shop shelves,” she added.
