Anti-Slavery Member Reference Group (MRG) meeting

Australian Industry Group invites you to participate in the Anti-Slavery Member Reference Group (MRG) meeting to discuss recent updates and recommendations to strengthen Australia's modern slavery laws.

Guest speaker: Chris Evans, Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

Louise McGrath, our Head of Industry Development and Policy will be chairing this meeting.

Background

The Office of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner has recently published an initial position paper setting out recommendations to strengthen Australia's modern slavery laws with the Commissioner's recommendations that the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) be amended to introduce:

• a mandatory, risk-based modern slavery due diligence obligation for reporting entities under the Act;
• a mechanism for the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner to declare that a product, service or industry carries a high risk of modern slavery, and require entities to have regard to declarations in their due diligence and reporting obligations under the Act.

The paper explains the Commissioner's views on why these two reforms are needed to combat modern slavery more effectively in the operations and supply chains of large Australian entities and makes preliminary recommendations about their design.

The purpose of the initial position paper is to help inform stakeholders' consideration of the proposed reforms and the Australian Government's targeted consultations on these topics.

The Office of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner welcomes stakeholders' feedback through this contact form. The consultation will close on 6 March.

*Note: the views and recommendations outlined in the paper may evolve after considering stakeholder feedback. More information is available here.