Inquiry Into Establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia Submission
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P a g e | 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3 2. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 3 3. Methodology & Terminology .......................................................................................... 5 4. Terms of Reference ......................................................................................................... 5 5. History and Background ................................................................................................. 6 5.1 A Short History of Modern Slavery and its Discontents ................................................................ 6 5.2 International Efforts to Combat Modern Slavery: A New International Standard ....................... 8 5.3 Regional Efforts to Combat Moderns Slavery ............................................................................... 9 5.4 Country Efforts to Combat Modern Slavery & Supply Chain Abuses ......................................... 10 5.5 Other Non-Binding Civil Society Developments ......................................................................... 12 5.6 Australian Business Developments to Address Modern Slavery ................................................ 12 6. Modern Slavery: The Australian Context..................................................................... 14 6.1 Identifying the Problem: Recent Concerning Trends of Corporate Activity in Australia ............ 14 6.2 Current Australian Legislative Scheme for Addressing Modern Slavery .................................... 17 6.3 Current Australian International Legal Obligations for Addressing Modern Slavery ................. 19 7. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS - THE UK MODERN SLAVERY ACT 2015.................... 20 This section addresses TOR5. ........................................................................................................... 20 7.1 Background – UK Legislative Landscape Prior to the Modern Slavery Act ................................. 20 7.2 UK Modern Slavery Bill................................................................................................................ 21 7.3 Criticisms of the UK Modern Slavery Bill..................................................................................... 22 7.4 2016 Independent Haughey Review & Further Identified Deficiencies ..................................... 25 8. International Best Practice Guidance for an Australian Modern Slavery Law and Implications ....................................................................................................................... 27 This section addresses TOR 3 and TOR4. ...................................................................... 27 8.1 Identifying international best practice employed by governments, companies, businesses and organisations to prevent modern slavery in domestic and global supply chains ............................. 27 8.2 Implications for Australia’s Visa Regime and conformity with the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Supress and Punish Trafficking in persons, especially Women and Children regarding federal compensation for victims of modern slavery; .................................................................................. 29 9. Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................................................... 30 Recommendation 1: .......................................................................................................................... 30 Recommendation 2: .......................................................................................................................... 30 Recommendation 3: .......................................................................................................................... 31 Recommendation 4: .......................................................................................................................... 31 P a g e | 3 Recommendation 5: .......................................................................................................................... 31 Recommendation 6: .......................................................................................................................... 31 1. Introduction Synceritas is an international team of cyber intelligence analysts and corporate risk consultants engaged in the endeavour of investigating, tracking and reporting present and emerging risks to individuals and organisations. We concentrate our analysis on seven fundamental areas of organisational risk: conflict and security, modern slavery, cyber and data, environment, international human rights, political and financial. These areas are representative of the wide and deep scope of the global intelligence assessment and reporting that we conduct on behalf of our clients. Anderson Fredericks Turner is an associate firm and agent of Synceritas in Australia. The diverse range of expertise represented within Synceritas and its worldwide network of consultants enables us to adapt and customise our intelligence analysis and reporting in accordance with the specialist requirements of our clients. We can either focus our risk analysis exclusively on one or a selection of fields, or we can conduct an intelligence analysis that encompasses the full spectrum of Synceritas' fields of expertise. The Synceritas team comprises of legal practitioners (solicitors and barristers) academics and consultants located throughout the world and with expertise on business and human rights issues in multiple jurisdictions including international banking and finance and corporate risk management. Synceritas was founded in 2015 by graduates from the Master of Studies Programme in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. Since its inception, Synceritas has expanded to become a global business and human rights consultancy with consultant practitioners and associate law firms in some ten countries around the world and covering five continents.1 2. Summary Synceritas has some experience in observing the implementation, application and performance of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (UK) (UK MSA). It is therefore well positioned to provide perspective on the benefits and disadvantages of how that legislative agenda was introduced and implemented in the UK and what lessons could be learned by Australia should it choose to legislate a similar legislative model for apprehending the scourge of modern slavery. Synceritas submits that Australia should both follow, add to and build upon the design of the UK MSA and learn from its implementation in the United Kingdom in order to build upon its realised deficiencies and optimise the implementation, application and performance of any legislative regime to be introduced in Australia. The Australian government should act promptly and efficiently to introduce a legislative regime to address modern slavery including for, but not limited to, the following reasons: (i) To contribute substantively to the growing global movement to address and combat the scourge of modern slavery in all of its forms by international bodies, regional bodies and countries as well as governments, NGOs, religious groups and other civil society organisations; 1 For more information, please refer to: www.synceritas.com P a g e | 4 (ii) To send a clear, compelling and robust message to human traffickers that the systemic abuse of the dignity of human beings in contravention of basic universally recognised standards of human rights will not be tolerated in Australia; (iii) To provide an enforceable legal regime to require mandatory annual reporting by medium and large business enterprises operating in Australia with regards to modern slavery in their global and domestic supply chains in order to: a. Establish and provide a system of certainty and consistency for businesses operating in Australia with regards to their obligations, responsibilities, opportunities and liabilities regarding modern slavery in their global and domestic supply chains; b. Provide guidance and stability for the Australian economy and its constituent domestic and foreign investors and companies operating and/or domiciled in Australia and abroad as to the expectations for proper financial regulation are in Australia; c. Streamline reporting requirements for businesses operating in Australia as to transparency regarding their global and domestic supply chains, including by way of establishing a global repository for such reports. (iv) To align Australia with its binding international legal obligations as follows under the seven (7) core international human rights law (IHRL) treaties which it has ratified2 and those which it needs to urgently ratify including the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families3and the 2008 Optional Protocol to the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR;4 (v) To align Australia and Australian businesses with their international obligations under the 2011 United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime) and other international instruments that establish best practice standards for combatting modern slavery;