Commissioner’s Speech at the Sydney Catholic Business Network Luncheon
Good afternoon, everyone,
Thank you for inviting me to join you today.
I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we meet today – the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation – and pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and any First Nations people joining us today.
I acknowledge the exploitation, including slavery and slavery-like practices, that were perpetrated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. I acknowledge that for some, these abuses are not historical but exist in living memory.
It’s a privilege to be with so many leaders across Catholic health, education, social services, finance and community sectors – those who carry forward a long tradition of service, grounded in human dignity and the common good.
I would like to acknowledge and express my sincere gratitude to Archbishop Anthony Fisher, his leadership on this issue has been exemplary. From facilitating and supporting the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network, to establishing Domus 8.7.
Under your guidance, the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has set a strong example and paved the way for meaningful action. Thank you.
You also lured two of the best in the business to your project: Alison Rahill and Jenny Stanger. Thank you both for all your work and for organising today.
And of course, thank you to Moe Turaga. Your voice and advocacy have greatly advanced the recognition that the voice of survivors must be heard.
Modern slavery is not an abstract or distant problem.
It’s a term that describes the most severe forms of exploitation – situations where people are trapped or controlled through coercion, deception, or the abuse of their vulnerability.
This can take many forms: forced labour, deceptive recruitment, debt bondage, child labour, or human trafficking.
At its core, modern slavery is about the denial of basic labour rights and human dignity.
It strips people of choice, fair pay, safety, and the ability to walk away from exploitation – things that are the foundation of decent work.
While the term might sound extreme, or of another century, the conditions that allow it to exist often grow out of ordinary business pressures, demand for low-cost goods and services, complex supply chains, and limited visibility over recruitment and subcontracting.
Modern slavery is not just a human rights concern – it is an economic and business issue. The illegal profits from forced labour are estimated to reach over US$230 billion each year.
This is big business, and if you want an example of the growth in this area, you only need to look at the scam camps now in Myanmar and Cambodia, where thousands of people are taken into modern slavery and forced to ring you up of an evening and try to scam you out of your bank details. This is an industry that has emerged in the last couple of years that is now big business and generating significant economic returns for those people involved in this international crime.
Modern slavery can affect people of all ages, genders and nationalities, and it is very much a problem here in Australia too. It is in our organisations, supply chains and domestic settings.
We’ve seen recent cases in domestic settings. Like the Melbourne couple who kept a woman in servitude in their home for nearly eight years. She was forced to cook, clean and care for their family – and she was unpaid, isolated, sleeping on the floor, and was found in a terrible condition.
We’ve seen recent cases in workplaces. Like the Sydney couple who kept a woman in forced labour, forced to work in their business for over three years. This woman came from the Philippines under false pretences, her passport was taken, and she was forbidden to leave. She worked up to 16 hours a day, and was paid almost nothing.
And we’ve seen recent cases in supply chains and service sectors too.
You might have seen the report in The Australian, just last week involving Australia Post and its property management firm JLL. In that case, cleaning work was subcontracted down multiple layers until it reached a second-tier contractor, where workers were allegedly underpaid and exploited.
Each of these cases is different, but they all expose the same truth – that exploitation can exist in the house next door, the businesses we frequent, and even the supply chains of some of our most trusted institutions.
We need a comprehensive, coordinated national approach to tackle this problem.
And much of that infrastructure is in place, but in December last year, they added my role, Australia’s first independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, to the mix.
My Office has been focused on building the foundations of a strong, collaborative national response to modern slavery.
The role of my Office is unique. It’s designed to encourage, connect, and advocate to Government and to business.
We do not enforce, regulate or investigate. Those functions lay with other organisations like the Australian Federal Police. My job is to work with businesses to improve our response. The government introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2018 after recognising that the business supply chains couldn’t be tackled by government alone.
Our Strategic Plan, launched a couple of weeks ago, sets a clear direction for the next three years.
It is designed to support and strengthen the work already underway across government, business and civil society, and to help translate commitment into practical change for those at risk.
From the outset, we committed to ensuring that our direction would be guided by lived experience. It is crucial to involve people with lived experience in shaping policy and strategy, as their experience informs what is working and where change is needed.
Having survivors’ perspectives shaping strategy and practice represents exactly the kind of leadership this country needs.
We aim to lift ambition and impact through partnership, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.
Our focus is on promoting best practice and continuous improvement, creating the environment for leadership, expanding on good ideas and amplifying lived experience.
We want to make sure government and business are moving together toward stronger, fairer systems that prevent exploitation before it occurs.
The Modern Slavery Act remains a strong foundation for this work.
It was significant when introduced in 2018, and it has seen business take seriously the risks of modern slavery.
It importantly placed modern slavery squarely on the agenda of boardrooms and public institutions, and literacy on modern slavery has increased as a result.
It created legal obligations for large businesses to publicly report on modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains
And it encourages the development of stronger risk management systems, policies and supplier engagement practices across industries.
But it is also true that the response from business has been patchy, some have responded by only ticking the minimum number of boxes, making the minimum possible effort to meet the compliance obligation and file a report, but no real action.
The global regulatory environment is shifting dramatically, requiring us to raise our ambition.
We are witnessing increasing international regulatory trends towards human rights due diligence, import controls on goods linked to forced labour and stronger enforcement to support ethical business practices.
Australia cannot afford to wait, or we risk becoming a dumping ground for goods barred from being sold in other developed economies. Other developed countries, such as United States, Canada, Mexico and the European Union, and potentially now also Indonesia, have, or are moving to, introduce import bans on goods made with forced labour. There is a really good business case building for it.
We have important opportunities ahead, including government-led reform of the Modern Slavery Act and the development of a new national strategy.
These are pivotal moments that we must seize as they will shape the direction and success of Australia’s efforts on modern slavery for years to come.
The recent statutory review of the Act highlighted opportunities to strengthen its impact, including:
- Introducing penalties for non-reporting
- Expanding due diligence obligations for large businesses
- Implementing high-risk declarations for goods and sectors.
The government has accepted most recommendations and is consulting on these potential areas of reform.
I will be advocating for due diligence requirements for large businesses and enhanced capabilities to identify goods made with forced labour entering Australia, and a regulatory response that effectively prevents forced labour products from reaching our markets.
These are important reforms, and this is a critical time in developing Australia’s response to modern slavery.
I want to stress a point, that I do not think is well understood. Success under the Modern Slavery Act means finding something. It does not mean hiding it, or being embarrassed, or worried about finding it. The Act is designed for companies to find, and remediate issues. That is the Act working. Otherwise, what is the point?
I think a lot of people, and a lot of boards were nervous about saying we found modern slavery in our supply chain.
Now, I’m pleased to say that the system is maturing, and we’ve now had four or five of the largest companies in Australia report findings of modern slavery in their supply chains, and deal with it.
For example, Rio Tinto in their recent modern slavery statement, reported and addressed a case of child labour by a contractor in their operations in Africa. I wrote to them and congratulated them for reporting this and for remediating this situation.
This is the system working. This is what the Act is intended to achieve.
My Office stands alongside organisations that act transparently and remediate harms responsibly.
This is the foundation on which we can build stronger prevention measures.
The Catholic community has become a national leader in driving change together.
Through the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network and Domus 8.7, the Catholic sector has become a national leader in implementing the Modern Slavery Act.
Together, through these initiatives, you are translating legal obligations into meaningful action, protecting workers and building the capacity of teams and suppliers across Australia.
I commend you on this work and on your decision to join the Cleaning Accountability Framework. This is a world-leading initiative that gives workers a voice and ensures that decent work standards are real, not just written in policy.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, I’d like to offer some reflections on where all reporting entities, not just those in the room today, could bring some more focus to their efforts.
Since taking Office, I’ve met with hundreds of businesses and human rights practitioners – like Jenny and Alison – procurement professionals, boards and investors and there are some clear themes that have emerged.
Firstly, good due diligence starts with a robust, but practical, risk assessment tailored to the organisation.
The goal is to understand where the highest risks to people exist in your operations and supply chains. It’s about protecting people, not just managing business risk.
Once you know which suppliers are low, medium or high risk, you can take meaningful action.
Secondly, we need to get back to site-based due diligence.
Too often, organisations focus policy, procedures and training at head office without seeing how these are implemented where goods and services are developed and delivered.
Talking to workers out in the factories, farms or warehouses, needs to become the norm again.
This can include social compliance audits, worker-led initiatives such as the Cleaning Accountability Framework, or robust site-level grievance channels.
Paperwork alone won’t protect people, engagement on the ground does.
Finally, labour hire is an area where we know exploitation is more likely, particularly in sectors such as horticulture, meat processing, cleaning, logistics, food production, and construction.
Businesses must know who is working on their sites and under what conditions. In your case, that might be the cleaners at the school, the construction crews at a new aged care facility, the staff handling linen in your hospitals.
Are they on the right visa? Are they properly paid? Are they working reasonable hours?
Unauthorised subcontracting and the use of contractors on ABNs where they should be employees remains common, and often goes unnoticed.
Currently only three states have labour hire licensing regimes. NSW is not one of them.
As a result, there has been an increase in non-compliant activity in towns and key growing regions on the Queensland and Victorian borders.
Whilst we are advocating for a harmonised national scheme, or at least an NSW Act, licensing alone won’t solve the problems.
Good governance means identifying risks, putting measures in place to manage them, and testing whether your controls actually work.
I encourage each of you to think about whether your teams have the tools and support needed to embed effective protections for workers throughout your operations and supply chains.
Good due diligence practices can be translated into concrete safeguards for workers, and make a real difference in the lives of those most vulnerable to exploitation.
As I mentioned, the next phase of reform is coming.
This is an important opportunity to strengthen what is already working.
The Modern Slavery Act gave us the foundation. The next step is to mature our systems and move from compliance to conviction, and from awareness to action.
Making those steps in practical terms means supporting risk-based due diligence.
It’s a measured but important shift to level the playing field and ensure entities are not just focused on reporting, but they are acting to identify risks and proactively reduce harm.
Only then will we see the full potential of the Modern Slavery Act to drive change.
You are already well-positioned to make a big contribution:
- You have governance frameworks in place
- You have experience embedding modern slavery risk management
- You have cross-sector collaboration and subject-matter experts
In closing, I urge you to continue to play a leadership role in this space, to continue to support the work of ACAN and Domus 8.7.
All of you can help make a real difference to the plight of a lot of people, both in Australia and overseas.
Thank you.