- Australia’s anti-slavery framework is currently under review with an eye to putting more pressure on companies to clean up their their supply chains
- A research project based on 2024 import data from the ABS found that 21.5% of all goods imported into Australia were from regions with known forced labour issues
- Anti-slavery advocates are calling on the federal govenment to compel businesses to do more than just report on possible forced labour risks
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Members of the federal government are aware of the shortcomings. Earlier this year, Australia’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Chris Evans, recommended a number of improvements to Australia’s anti-slavery framework, which is currently under review.
They are more incremental than structural, and include giving the Anti-Slavery Commissioner the power to declare that a particular product, service, or industry carries a high risk of being involved in modern slavery.
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In February this year, Australian anti-slavery group the Walk Free Foundation and supply chain management firm Fair Supply released the findings of a research project based on 2024 import data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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Many other everyday goods – including phones, computers, footwear and vehicle parts – were also found to be at risk of being manufactured by exploited workers in these regions, the Walk Free Foundation reports. The combined value of these imports was $98.6 billion.
(The exporting countries in question were China, Malaysia, India, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Brazil, Argentina, Nepal and Japan.)
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One-fifth is still surprisingly low, I expected it to be like 50%. The biggest culprit is still clothing (89%, according to the article), something that could be sourced locally.