There are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history.
While the federal government has been working to address this problem through legislation and multi-sector consultation, it is up to the corporate sector to take a proactive leadership role in eradicating slavery from supply chains and operations.
There has been considerable recent activity supporting the government sector’s commitment to ending modern slavery.
In June, the Attorney-General’s Department held the Modern Slavery Conference, attended by 450 people drawn from all sectors, with the theme ‘Taking Action Together’. The conference heard from attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and assistant minister for social services Justine Elliott over three days.
Earlier in June, the office of the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner released its strategic plan for 2023-2026, Working Together for Real Freedom, at Parliament House.
These were preceded by the statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) led by professor John McMillan and tabled in Parliament. Also in May, Walk Free published the 2023 Global Slavery Index, which indicates the number of people trapped in various forms of forced labour globally has reached nearly 50 million. About 41,000 of those are in Australia.
In April, a coalition of civil society and academic organisations tabled a report called ‘Australia’s Modern Slavery Act: Is it Fit for Purpose?’
These were all important initiatives designed to provide an opportunity for reflection and further learning. All have been based on a collaborative framework of seeking to understand what is working, what isn’t and what changes are required.
It is hoped an approach based on consulting widely and listening deeply will inform and strengthen future initiatives. After all, as Buckminster Fuller once said, ‘You can never learn less, you can only learn more’.
There has also been an increased acknowledgement of the importance of including the lived experience of survivors of modern slavery in any reforms.
Sophie Otiende, chief executive officer of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery based in Nairobi, spoke passionately about this at both the NSW and federal government conferences. She reminded everyone that behind the number ’50 million’ are 50 million stories of 50 million human beings.
A survivor of exploitation, Otiende reminded audiences of the unique perspectives of those with lived experience and raised the important issue of organisations not simply seeking the views of survivors but ensuring that they are treated as equals and considered for roles that become available running organisations committed to ending slavery.
When the Australian Modern Slavery Act was first drafted in 2017, it was done so after broad multi-sector consultation conducted by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. This resulted in the report ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’.
During 2017, opinions ranged from ‘we don’t need any further legislation, business can self-manage this situation’ to recommendations for tough legislation on business that included a requirement for all businesses that met a threshold of $50 million annual turnover being required to submit annual statements, penalties for non-compliance and the establishment of the role of a federal anti-slavery Commissioner.
The Act landed somewhere in the middle with the government giving business time to adjust to new legislation and encouraging businesses to engage in ‘a race to the top’ by fully committing to ensuring that their supply chains were free of forced labour and thereby enhancing their own reputations by doing so.
However, a report entitled ‘Paper Promises? Evaluating the early impact of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act’ produced by a coalition of human rights, academic and church groups casts doubt on the corporate sector’s resolve to prioritise tackling modern slavery within their operations:
- 77% of companies reviewed had failed to comply with the basic reporting requirements mandated by the legislation;
- 52% had failed to identify obvious modern slavery risks in their operations or supply chains. Only one in four garment companies sourcing from China, for instance, made any mention of the risk of Uyghur forced labour in their supply chains;
- Just 27% of companies appeared to be taking some form of effective action to address modern slavery risks.
There were positive findings as well, with two of our largest corporations – Woolworths and Coles – among the highest-scoring companies. They appeared alongside Kathmandu, which has built its brand over many years based on a genuine commitment to environmental sustainability and human rights.
It is highly likely many recommendations tabled in the McMillan statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 will be adopted by the government, with Dreyfus having confirmed funding to enable the appointment of Australia’s first federal anti-slavery commissioner. Other recommendations such as lowering the reporting threshold, a requirement for due diligence in relation to supply chain investigations and penalties for non-compliance, are under review.
However, if much of corporate Australia continues to turn a blind eye and fails to act on human rights issues within their operations or remains focused on minimal compliance rather than showing real leadership on such an important issue, then it is doubtful that significant progress will be made.
The big question is, what will it take for the corporate sector to throw its massive resources, knowledge and power behind the elimination of modern slavery?
Firstly, this sector, which by and large values its reputation in society, needs to appreciate that this is not an appeal to altruism or exercising its discretion to have a greater positive social impact. It is a request to stop contributing to the enslavement of nearly 50 million people in the world in the name of lowering the cost of manufacturing the goods they sell or those they use in their businesses.
In 1791 William Wilberforce, considered by many to be the father of the anti-slavery movement, said, “Having heard all of this you may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know”. That was over 200 years ago and unbelievably we are still having this conversation.
There have been multiple studies based on rigorous research and countless articles written about one of the most pressing social problems of our time, however, we now must transform knowledge into action.
We need the boards and senior executives, who are the stewards of our corporations, to look deeply into their supply chains and commit to doing whatever is necessary to stop a business model that is based on human misery and despair where the most vulnerable people in our society are being exploited in favour of a model where the payment of a living wage, freedom of association and individual agency are the norm.
