Federal Government passes law to establish Australia’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner

This article was co-authored with Suwen Fang.

The Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023 passed the House of Representatives on 28 May 2024 and is now awaiting royal assent to become law. This will result in the appointment of a Commonwealth Anti-Slavery Commissioner (‘Commissioner’) as an independent statutory office holder within the Attorney-General’s portfolio.

Scope of authority

It is anticipated that the Commissioner will play a vital role in raising awareness about modern slavery at a national level, engaging with federal government agencies, and helping to shape the implementation of future modern slavery reforms by the federal government.

The Commissioner’s functions will include:

• supporting Australian entities and entities carrying on business in Australia to address risks of modern slavery practices in their operations and supply chains;
• engaging with, and promoting engagement with, victims of modern slavery to inform measures for addressing modern slavery;
• supporting, encouraging and conducting education and community awareness initiatives relating to modern slavery.

Despite the longstanding calls from NGOs and academia for the Commissioner to have stronger powers, the Commissioner will not have investigative or enforcement powers. However, there remains scope for the Commissioner’s functions and powers to evolve over time.

Government resourcing

As part of the 2023-24 budget, the Government allocated $8 million over 4 years from 2023–24 to establish an Anti-Slavery Commissioner. In addition, in the 2024-25 Budget, it was announced that $2.5 million would be budgeted over two years to undertake an audit of the Government’s supply chains and procurement procedures to address modern slavery risks. This is in addition to $12.1 million in funding over 5 years for the new Forced Marriage Specialist Support Program and $2.2 million in further funding to extend the Speak Now project delivered by Anti-Slavery Australia which aims to prevent forced marriage through education.

NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner

As outlined in our earlier article update, the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner is empowered by the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW) to advocate for action to combat modern slavery, support victims of modern slavery, have oversight of NSW public procurement efforts to remove products of modern slavery from supply chains, issue codes of practice and maintain a public register related to efforts to address modern slavery risks in supply chains.

Although there may be some degree of overlap between the coverage of the NSW and Commonwealth Commissioners, it is likely that they will work closely together in a collaborative effort to address modern slavery.

What this could mean for businesses

It is anticipated that the Commissioner will, in due course, develop guidance material and resources for the business community to support their compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). In conjunction with the detailed due diligence material and codes of practice published by the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner, we see greater clarity on the horizon in terms of the expectations of governments, increased awareness of modern slavery within the business community, and possibly the resumption of the ‘race to the top’ by businesses using superior modern slavery risk management practices as a differentiator. Current suppliers to the Commonwealth should prepare themselves for the audit of procurement processes and increased engagement in relation to modern slavery from Commonwealth departments and agencies.