Establishing a modern slavery act in Australia

An estimated 45.8 million people¹ are subjected to conditions of forced labour and slavery. Some of these people work within the supply chains of companies that provide food, clothing and other goods purchased in Australia.

In May 2017, Fortescue made a submission to the Federal Government’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade’s inquiry into whether Australia should adopt a modern slavery act.

At Fortescue, we are committed to protecting and promoting human rights and have business wide policies and practices to prevent, detect and remedy instances of forced labour within our operations and the operations of our suppliers and business partners.

We support the establishment of a modern slavery act in Australia and believe that the development of a strong legislative framework will lead to significant advances in the prevention of modern slavery within the domestic and international supply chains of business and government.

A strong framework will provide better protection to the victims of modern slavery and promote transparency on corporate actions to address slavery in supply chains.

A copy of Fortescue’s submission is available here.

¹ The Global Slavery Index 2016, The Walkfree Foundation