Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act
17 August 2021
Modern slavery describes situations where coercion, threats or deception are used to exploit victims and undermine or deprive them of their freedom. The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is supporting the sport sector to raise awareness of modern slavery practices.
Implementing Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act
How can we help to stamp out these practices that may be occurring within and across sporting communities?
The Australian Parliament passed the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act (the Act) on 29 November 2018 and the Act entered into force on 1 January 2019. The Act was the result of widespread consultation and advocacy to harness the collective leverage of Australian businesses, civil society and investors to drive real change on modern slavery both domestically and abroad.
Under the Act certain large businesses and Government entities must publish annual Modern Slavery Statements on an online register. These statements explain what entities are doing to assess and address the risks that modern slavery practices may be occurring in their operations and supply chains, and the operations and supply chains of any entities they own or control. There are many forms of labour abuse and exploitation, such as underpayment of workers, which may also be an indicator that other forms of abuse are occurring. Victims may not even know they are victims, especially if the behaviour has been normalised. For example, unscrupulous recruitment brokers withholding fees, or demanding repayments for loans at a high interest rate.
We all have a role to play in identifying and reporting suspected abuse and exploitation. By improving transparency and increasing awareness of modern slavery risks, we can reduce modern slavery in the production and supply chains of Australian goods and services and improve workplace practices.
The ASC is fully committed to identifying and preventing these crimes from occurring in our operations and supply chains and we encourage all sporting organisations and our sports industry partners to do the same.
The ASC’s Modern Slavery Statement can be accessed via our 36206_ASC-Modern-Slavery-Statement.pdf through our media centre, within our publications or through the Modern Slavery Statements Register linked below.
The Business and Government Engagement Section in the Australian Border Force is responsible for driving implementation of the Act. Below are links to information and resources that can assist sporting organisations and sport industry bodies to educate staff and their communities on modern slavery and how to identify and report modern slavery practices.
Modern slavery (homeaffairs.gov.au), opens in a new tab
Guidance for reporting entities (homeaffairs.gov.au), opens in a new tab
Modern slavery e-learning module , opens in a new tab
News and Resources (modernslaveryregister.gov.au), opens in a new tab