Investors and consumers have become key players in the fight against modern slavery.
There are around 50 million victims of modern slavery, with more than half in forced labour. Australian businesses are directly connected to this human rights abuse through global supply chains, profiting from the forced labour of people exploited overseas and in Australia. Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 encourages businesses to address this problem by requiring companies with more than AUD$100 million in annual revenue to report on their efforts to address modern slavery in their supply chains. But compliance is a low bar — businesses are only required to produce a report, rather than find, prevent, and remediate labour exploitation. And there’s no penalty for failing to comply.
In place of government-imposed penalties, consumers and investors are expected to serve as an accountability mechanism by punishing or rewarding businesses for their performance in combating modern slavery through political investorism and consumerism.
