Bill
Modern Slavery Bill 2018
passed, as at 2018-12-10. Home Affairs portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Home Affairs
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2018-06-28
- second reading — 2018-06-28
- second reading — 2018-09-12
- second reading — 2018-09-17
- second reading — 2018-09-17
- committee — 2018-09-17
- third reading — 2018-09-17
- introduced — 2018-09-18
- second reading — 2018-09-18
- second reading — 2018-11-28
- second reading — 2018-11-28
- committee — 2018-11-28
- third reading — 2018-11-28
- other — 2018-11-29
- passed — 2018-11-29
- royal assent — 2018-12-10
Divisions
- The majority voted against a motion, which was to amend the usual second reading motion "that the bill be read a [second time](https://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/making-a-law.html)" with the following: > *That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:* > *"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to establish an Office of an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to help victims of modern slavery and stamp out this sickening crime."* Voting to read a bill for a second time means that the Members of Parliament (MPs) agree with the main idea of the bill. After this stage, the MPs can discuss the bill in more detail. ### What is this bill all about? According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1819a/19bd012): > *The Bill will require around 3,000 entities based or operating in Australia to prepare annual statements on potential modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, and the steps they have taken to address those risks.* — 2018-09-17, House of Representatives: negative, ayes 68, noes 73
- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2018-09-17.114.2) introduced by Labor MP [Clare O'Neil](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/hotham/clare_o'neil), which means they failed. O'Neil MP explained her amendments: > *Amendments (1) and (2) circulated in my name relate to forced marriage, which, as it currently stands, is a definition of slavery to which this modern slavery act would eventually be subject. Whether we should include forced marriage in the legislation before us is a complicated question. Under Australia's Criminal Code, forced marriage is considered one of the types of slavery that is outlawed under Australian law, but that doesn't really help us to answer the question as to whether it should in fact be subject to a modern slavery bill.* > *[...]* > *The question, though, is how broadly we define slavery under this act, and, specifically, whether we want to put an obligation on big companies in this country that they investigate forced marriage, as a form of slavery, which would then subject to the reporting requirements that we are discussing? It may come to pass in the future that we will consider that this is an important part of the act, but Labor believes that under this first go at the Australian Parliament legislating on this matter it is not appropriate to include forced marriage.* ### What is this bill all about? According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1819a/19bd012): > *The Bill will require around 3,000 entities based or operating in Australia to prepare annual statements on potential modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, and the steps they have taken to address those risks.* — 2018-09-17, House of Representatives: negative, ayes 67, noes 73
- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2018-09-17.117.1) introduced by Labor MP [Clare O'Neil](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/hotham/clare_o'neil), which means they failed. O'Neil MP explained her amendment: > *there is something crucially important missing from the bill that's before us. That is the issue of penalties. So Labor is moving amendments to this bill to introduce immediate penalties for companies that fail to submit a modern slavery statement and penalties for companies that submit inadequate modern slavery statements with a two-year delayed start.* ### What is this bill all about? According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1819a/19bd012): > *The Bill will require around 3,000 entities based or operating in Australia to prepare annual statements on potential modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, and the steps they have taken to address those risks.* — 2018-09-17, House of Representatives: negative, ayes 67, noes 73
- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2018-11-28.199.1) introduced by Senator [Don Farrell](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/sa/don_farrell) (SA), which means they failed. ### What were the amendments about? [According to Senator Farrell](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2018-11-28.199.1): > *These amendments would remove forced marriage from the reporting requirements which would be established by this bill. The reason we are doing this is that Labor is very concerned that the inclusion of forced marriage in this bill will have unintended consequences, including driving forced marriage further underground. The Salvation Army, in its submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry into this bill, said:* >> *There is risk that requiring entities to assess risk of this practice may lead to unintended negative consequences, including racial and/or religious profiling of some staff.* ### What is this bill all about? According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1819a/19bd012): > *The Bill will require around 3,000 entities based or operating in Australia to prepare annual statements on potential modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, and the steps they have taken to address those risks.* — 2018-11-28, Senate: negative, ayes 26, noes 29
- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2018-11-28.204.1) moved by Senator [Don Farrell](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/sa/don_farrell) (SA), which means they failed. ### What were the amendments? [According to Senator Farrell](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2018-11-28.204.1): > "*These Labor amendments will introduce penalties for failing to comply with any modern slavery act. As we've said over and over again, big business cannot be trusted to police themselves on modern slavery. The experience overseas makes the need for penalties crystal clear. Anti-Slavery Australia provided evidence to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the bill to show that, in the United Kingdom, in the three years since the UK Modern Slavery Act's enactment, only about half of the 9,000 to 11,000 organisations that the UK government estimates are required to report have produced a slavery and human trafficking statement. That's simply not good enough. Labor does not want to see only half of the companies complying with the requirements of this bill.*" ### What is this bill all about? According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1819a/19bd012): > *The Bill will require around 3,000 entities based or operating in Australia to prepare annual statements on potential modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, and the steps they have taken to address those risks.* — 2018-11-28, Senate: negative, ayes 26, noes 29
Plain-language summary
No machine-written summary in this export.
Sources
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