Supporting business to combat modern slavery
Business and Human Rights
The Commission and KPMG Australia are collaborating on the development of a range of practical, sector-specific guides to support businesses to understand and manage their modern slavery risks and to respond effectively to the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). The Act requires certain large entities to report annually on their efforts to address risks of modern slavery in their global operations and supply chains.
According to the Global Slavery Index more than 40 million people around the world are living in modern slavery conditions, with up to 15,000 victims living in Australia. Modern slavery refers to a range of serious human rights violations, which are also crimes in Australia. They include trafficking in persons, slavery, servitude, forced marriage, forced labour, debt bondage, child labour, and deceptive recruiting for labour or services.
You can read the KPMG Australia and the Australian Human Rights Commission’s:
- guide for the Property and Construction sector here
- guide for the Financial Services sector here
- guide for the Health Services sector here
- guide for the Resources and Natural energy sectors
The guides:
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highlight particular modern slavery risks prevalent in different sectors.
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provide tips for each sector on leading practice and a rights-based approach to managing modern slavery risk.
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foster transparent modern slavery reporting for the benefit of business, government, and the people at risk of harm.
The guides are relevant to entities that are required to report under the Modern Slavery Act, and to businesses that supply or have other business relationships with reporting entities. A series of guides for other high-risk sectors are currently in development.