Modern Slavery Act

The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) is the Commonwealth law that requires large entities operating in Australia to report publicly on modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains. It came into force on 1 January 2019 and applies to entities with annual consolidated revenue of at least A$100 million.

The Act is a transparency law rather than a prohibition. It does not create a new offence for the businesses it covers. What it creates is an annual reporting duty, and the statement must address seven mandatory criteria, including the entity’s structure, operations and supply chains, the risks it has identified, the actions taken to assess and address them, and how it measures whether those actions worked. Each statement must be approved by the entity’s principal governing body and signed by a responsible member, which puts it on the board’s desk.

One point trips people up regularly. Modern slavery under the Act means serious exploitation, covering human trafficking, servitude, forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage and the worst forms of child labour. It does not extend to substandard working conditions or underpayment of workers. Those are real problems and can sit alongside modern slavery, but they are handled under other laws.

Meeting the reporting duty in practice usually draws on:

• modern slavery training so procurement and contract staff can recognise the indicators
• human rights training for the broader workforce
• whistleblower training, since supply chain concerns often arrive through a disclosure
• workplace policies including supplier codes of conduct

Statements are published on the Modern Slavery Statements Register, administered by the Attorney-General’s Department, so what an entity writes is public and comparable against its peers. Entities below the threshold may report voluntarily. The statutory review recommended lowering the threshold to $50 million, which is not law at the time of writing, so the $100 million test still applies. This is general information rather than legal advice and the framework continues to change, so check the current position before relying on it.

Posts tagged here cover what the Act asks of Australian businesses in practice. Sentrient’s compliance training courses include modern slavery awareness.