NSW Inquiry Report Recommendations Welcomed

The NSW Parliament passed a Modern Slavery Act in June 2018. However the Act has never been implemented. Instead it was put on hold while an Inquiry into the legislation was conducted. The Inquiry report was released on 25th March.

ACRATH and Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) prepared a joint submission for the Inquiry urging the NSW Parliament to proceed with haste in implementing the Act as the legislation acknowledged the need to take action on the human rights of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The ACRATH and CRA submission also affirmed the NSW Parliament for including features in the ACT that were not present in the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018.

Recommendation 1 of the Inquiry report states:

• That the NSW Government proceed to introduce amendments to the Modern Slavery Act 2018 taking into consideration the comments and recommendations of this report, with the aim of the Act commencing on or before 1 January 2021.

ACRATH and CRA welcome this and other recommendations in the report. However, a Government has 6 months to consider an inquiry report and is under no obligation to accept the recommendations of that report.

As a member of the Be Slavery Free coalition ACRATH invites you to join the campaign to let Premier Berejiklian and members of the NSW Parliament know the recommendations of the Inquiry report have community support. Click here to support the campaign.