At a glance
- The Combatting Trafficking in Person and Modern Forms of Slavery Bill (Bill) aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework to combat trafficking and modern slavery in New Zealand.
- Entities with revenue over NZD50 million must report on their efforts to identify, address, and mitigate risks of trafficking and modern slavery.
- The Bill proposes the establishment of an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to monitor progress and ensure accountability.
- Updates to the Crimes Act to align with international standards, improve child trafficking prosecution, and enhance victim protection and support.
- The Bill includes penalties for non-compliance and proposes a publicly accessible register for modern slavery statements to enhance transparency and accountability.
A group of leading human rights advocates have released an important report 'Building Consensus: A comprehensive Framework for Combating Trafficking in Persons and Modern Slavery in New Zealand.' The report introduces the Bill.
The Bill is an important step to overcome stalled progress on modern slavery legislation in New Zealand. If successful, the legislation will establish a comprehensive legal framework to combat trafficking in persons and broader forms of modern slavery, aligning with international standards including a framework for modern slavery reporting for certain New Zealand entities.
The Bill has been proposed by leveraging a 2023 amendment to the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives that allows non-executive bills with majority support (61 endorsements by non-executive members) to bypass the ballot and go directly to first reading. The intention is for it to be introduced as a bipartisan private member's bill to go through a select committee process enabling thorough consultation.
Key provisions of the Bill include mandatory reporting requirements for reporting entities to disclose their methods of identifying, addressing, mitigating, and remediating risks of trafficking and modern slavery within their operations and supply chains. Additionally, the Bill proposes the establishment of an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
Proposed Bill
The Bill enhances New Zealand's ability to combat trafficking in persons and modern slavery. The proposal:
- Mandates private and public entities with revenue exceeding NZD50 million to report via a modern slavery statement on how they identify, address, mitigate and remediate risks of trafficking in persons and broader forms of modern slavery within their operations and supply chains. A clause relating to high-risk entities allows for threshold adjustment for businesses operating in high-risk sectors.
- Establishes an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to monitor progress and provide accountability.
- Strengthens legal provisions related to trafficking in persons (updates to s98B and 98D of the Crimes Act) to align with the Palermo Protocol. In particular, the Bill would resolve a particular issue in prosecuting child trafficking cases so that the 'means' element for children is removed reflecting the vulnerability of children.
- Enhances victim protection and support.
- Creates penalties for non-compliance.
Consistent with other jurisdictions, it is proposed that a government-operated, publicly accessible register is created for reporting entities modern slavery statements, enhancing transparency and accountability. Once legislated, there should be a full review of the Act every three years to evaluate effectiveness and ensure alignment with evolving international standards.
It is anticipated there will be a through consultation as part of the Select Committee process. Consultation on the Bill should require engagement with survivors to ensure survivor-informed perspectives and expertise are incorporated as well as engagement with iwi to ensure Te Tiriti o Waitangi and a Te Ao Māori perspective are fully integrated. The proposal is pragmatic and drafted to reflect consensus on modern slavery policy taking into consideration international standards, Labour's previous proposal, National's private members bill and findings from the public consultation on modern slavery undertaken by MBIE in 2022.
The proposed Bill looks to align with international best practice with the report providing comparison with existing legislation in other jurisdictions. Many New Zealand companies are already reporting on their business operations and supply chains in other countries with 238 New Zealand headquartered companies reporting in Australia last year.
More to explore
