Modern Slavery Act 2018

• The Act requires reporting entities to give a detailed modern slavery statement including, e.g.:
  • The risks of modern slavery in their operations, supply chains, and any other entity they own or control;
  • The actions taken to assess and address those risks, including due diligence and remediation processes;
  • How the reporting entity assesses the effectiveness of the actions taken.
• The statement has to be approved by the governing body of the entity.
• All statements are collected on an online public register.

The Act only covers modern slavery.

The Act does not cover downstream relationships (buyers, consumers, and disposal).

• The MSA applies to commercial organisations that have a consolidated revenue of at least AUD 100 million and
  • are Australian; or
  • carry on business in Australia.

• The Minister must prepare a statement for all non-corporate Commonwealth entities.
• Corporate Commonwealth entities or Commonwealth companies with a consolidated revenue of at least AUD 100 million also fall within the scope of the Act.

• If an entity does not give a statement, the Minister can make a written request for the reporting entity to
  • Provide an explanation for the failure to comply; and/or
  • Undertake specific remedial actions.
• The Minister can publish the identity of any entity that does not comply with the request
• The Modern Slavery Business Engagement Unit examines all statements before they are published and assesses their compliance with:
  • the signature/approval requirements. In 2022, 30% were likely non-compliant;
  • specific reporting criteria due to failure to adequately describe them. In 2022, among others, around 24% were likely non-compliant in how they assess the effectiveness of their actions.

• The Act does not contain any offence or civil penalty for non-compliance.
• The Act precludes the Minister from introducing legislative instruments which create an offence or civil penalty.