The New South Wales premier is facing fresh calls to bring into force the nation’s strongest anti-slavery laws, which remain in limbo amid fears the government is coming under pressure from the business community.
A wide range of faith-based groups, community organisations, anti-slavery campaigners and lawyers will write to Gladys Berejiklian on Monday to warn that Covid-19 will put more people under pressure to accept lower workplace standards and could see an increase in exploitation.
“Exploitation in supply chains for goods and services is expected to rise exponentially, both here in Australia and overseas, exacerbated by freedom-of-movement restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the virus, which may provide cover for some to exploit and bond people,” states the letter, which is signed by more than 117 individuals and groups.
“It is imperative that the act is not delayed any longer.”
Experts say the NSW laws – which impose financial penalties on businesses that fail to report on how they are reducing the risk of modern slavery across their operations and supply chains – are much stronger than the national laws, which do not include fines for reporting breaches.
But despite passing both houses of NSW parliament and receiving royal assent in 2018, the state legislation has never actually come into force.
The term modern slavery covers a range of exploitative practices including human trafficking, slavery, servitude, forced labour, debt bondage and forced marriage. It is not just a problem in offshore supply chains: the Australian Institute of Criminology estimated the number of human trafficking and slavery victims in Australia was between 1,300 and 1,900 in 2015–16 and 2016–17.
The joint letter – coordinated by the anti-slavery group Be Slavery Free – states that if NSW is serious about its commitment to ending modern slavery, the law must be implemented as a matter of urgency.
It calls for it to enter into force from January next year in line with the recommendation of a parliamentary committee, even though that “represents an avoidable delay of two-and-a-half years since the original act was passed and assented”.
“In that time, hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, both here in Australia and internationally, will have been deceived into a life of slavery.”
Describing the NSW law as an important addition to the federal law, the letter argues it “positions NSW as a world leader in addressing modern slavery and in the wake of Covid-19 should inform your government’s job creation initiatives to create better working conditions and prevent the scourge of modern slavery here and overseas”.
It says supply chains are not only about goods and services but also about people – and Australian leaders have “a moral duty to demonstrate compassion and our legal duty to protect people across the globe, especially with respect to the supply chains from which Australians benefit”.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic increasing job insecurity, fear and vulnerabilities, a significant number of people will invariably be subjected to a degradation of their rights,” it states.
The signatories include barrister Philip Granville Wallis, who says he is inspired by the record of his British abolitionist ancestor to keep up the fight against injustice.
“I am connected through my mother’s family to Granville Sharp [1753-1813], one of the original British campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade,” Wallis said. “I find it incomprehensible that we are still having these battles with governments. As a barrister, I share my ancestor’s passion for opposing injustice and denial of human rights.”
Other signatories include Unions NSW, the Anglican Church of Australia’s public affairs commission along with several Anglican dioceses, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, Caritas Australia, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, and the grand mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed.
When asked about the premier’s commitment to the legislation – and whether it would take effect on 1 January next year as the inquiry recommended – a NSW government spokesperson told Guardian Australia the government was due to respond to the committee report “later this year”.
“The government is carefully considering the committee’s recommendations,” the spokesperson said.
According to the NSW government website on modern slavery, the state is working with the federal government to ensure the responses by the two levels of government are “consistent and complementary”.
The national legislation requires about 3,000 of Australia’s largest businesses, with annual consolidated revenue of more than $100m, to publish annual statements on the steps they are taking to address modern slavery in their supply chains and operations, but that law has attracted criticism for its lack of penalties.
The NSW law, however, imposes reporting requirements on companies with annual turnover of between $50m and $100m, and allows for criminal penalties of up to $1.1m for failure to prepare or publish a required statement or providing false or misleading information.
Emeritus professor Paul Redmond, from the law faculty at the University of New South Wales, said the delay in bringing the NSW law into effect was concerning.
He said the NSW act was strongly opposed by business organisations, which argued it was unnecessary in light of the national law, even though the federal government had already announced its intention to introduce modern slavery reporting requirements at the time the state law was passed.
“This is not new,” Redmond told Guardian Australia. “The NSW act says that reporting should not be voluntary. Clearly, some interests believe that these ‘transnational crimes’ and ‘undeniable moral imperative[s]’ should be left to the realm of voluntariness.”
