How both large and small Kiwi businesses will need to comply with the Australian Modern Slavery Act

Last week, the Australian government released guidance for businesses on the Australian Modern Slavery Act which passed January 1st 2019. New Zealand businesses have the opportunity to get ahead of the curve by responding quickly and decisively.

Any company doing business in Australia with a consolidated revenue of AU$100 million a year or more will legally need to comply. In a nutshell, compliance means you will have to identify, implement and then report on measures put in place to mitigate the risk of modern slavery happening in your operations and across your supply chains.

At least 500 New Zealand businesses fall under the category of mandatory compliance, however, smaller businesses in NZ will be affected too. If you supply to, or are a subsidiary of, larger companies that do business in Australia, you will most likely be called on to demonstrate your actions to identify and address Modern Slavery risks in your business for their statements.

And this is where Kiwi businesses have the opportunity to lead the way and set themselves apart. Voluntary statements from companies outside the threshold are also strongly encouraged. Compliance will give Kiwi companies of any size a competitive advantage. If the UK model is anything to go by, demonstrating compliance will soon become a requirement for doing business with the public sector and big business in Australia.

The Australian Government’s guidance is simple and straightforward, outlining the following steps:

1. Find out if your business is required to report.
2. Prepare a statement that fits all the criteria set out in the Act.
3. Have the statement approved by the board and signed off by a director.
4. Submit your statement to the Australian government to be published on their free open register
5. Analyse key learnings from compiling the report and look at actions you can take to improve your performance and build an evidence base for next year’s statement (a key requirement of the reporting framework).

Click here to access the full draft guidance. 

Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about the Australian Modern Slavery Act, how it could impact your business, and how Fifty Eight can help you get ahead of the curve in developing your response.