Australia’s modern slavery laws are among the weakest in the developed world and the country risks becoming a “dumping ground” for goods made with forced labour, Australia’s first anti-slavery commissioner has said.
In a wide-ranging interview with Guardian Australia, the commissioner, Chris Evans – a former Labor senator and minister – said there were “blind spots” in Australia’s efforts that risked the country becoming a global laggard.
“Not only are we not keeping up to the standard of acceptable corporate responsibility,” he said of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act, “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.”
His comments come as a report by the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery argued that migrants and vulnerable minorities “slip through the cracks” to be exploited in Australia.
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The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, described modern slavery as “abhorrent” and said the government was committed to combating it.
Evans said jurisdictions comparable to Australia, including the US, Canada, or – soon – the EU had introduced import bans on goods made with, or strongly suspected of being made with, forced labour. No such ban exists in Australia.
Australia has one of the “weakest regimes in dealing with forced labour”, Evans said, arguing that companies making goods with forced labour on warning lists, and excluded from markets such as US, Canada or Europe, would seek to export to countries without import bans.
“We’re [Australia] at risk of becoming a dumping ground for goods that are designed for … wealthy western countries, but which may have serious issues with forced labour in their supply chains.”
Australia’s other most pressing “blind spot” was in low rates of identification and prosecution of offences occurring inside Australia, he said.
“Some people like to comfort themselves by thinking, well, that means we don’t have much of a problem here, but … that’s nonsense: 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.”
Walk Free’s Global Slavery Index estimates that there are about 41,000 people held in modern slavery in Australia.
The Guardian requested statistics from the commonwealth director of public prosecutions on modern slavery prosecutions. Data provided to the UN office of drugs and crime shows that in 2023 – the latest figures available – 352 people were “brought into formal contact with the police and/or criminal justice system because they have been suspected of, arrested for, or cautioned for trafficking in persons”.
Five people were prosecuted. Zero were convicted.
Evans said Australia’s Modern Slavery Act, introduced in 2018, was “light-touch” legislation and Australia had failed to progress from that “first tentative step”.
The act mandates only that companies turning over more than $100m a year issue modern slavery reports: it imposes no obligations to address risks.
There are no penalties for failing to report and no penalties for substandard reporting. It’s estimated that 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.
Some companies are reporting comprehensively, Evans said: “Others quite frankly are taking the mickey, by putting in two pages of ‘we oppose modern slavery’ and that’s been regarded as sufficient to pass muster.”
He argued that Australia’s modern slavery laws needed to move from a reporting mandate to a “due diligence” model, where companies were required to act to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains or business practices.
Evans said the introduction of penalties was similarly overdue.
In 2023 the former ombudsman Prof John McMillan led a review of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act. He found “no hard evidence that the Modern Slavery Act … has yet caused meaningful change for people living in conditions of modern slavery”.
Among his 30 recommendations was that the act be updated to include: an obligation that companies must address modern slavery risks in their supply chains; penalties for companies that fail to comply; and high-risk declarations for regions, factories or suppliers.
The government did not respond until December 2024 – accepting in full, part or principle 25 of the 30 recommendations – but many have not been implemented. The government released a consultation paper in July.
Rowland said Australia had “strong laws and a comprehensive response to combat modern slavery practices, such as human trafficking, slavery, and slavery-like practices”.
“The Albanese government is committed to continuing our efforts to strengthen our response,” she said.
This month the UN special rapporteur Prof Tomoya Obokata said he was “seriously concerned by the treatments of temporary migrant workers in Australia”, reporting “disturbing, sometimes very serious, patterns of exploitative practices by employers, labour hire companies and migration agents”.
Obokata highlighted the exploitation of asylum seekers and refugees; people with disabilities; temporary migrant workers such as those on the Pacific Australia labour mobility scheme (particularly those who had “disengaged” from it and were outside its protections); domestic workers in diplomatic households; and students visa-holders.
He said vulnerable and marginalised people were let down by Australia’s “patchwork” laws.
The government will respond to Obokata’s report at the human rights council in September.
