Proclaim the Act NOW!
In June 2018 the NSW Parliament passed the Modern Slavery Act. However, despite receiving royal assent this ground-breaking legislation has never been proclaimed into law. While there is a Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act, the NSW Act is more robust providing for an Anti-Slavery Commissioner, awareness raising about modern slavery, creation of new modern slavery offences, support for victims of modern slavery and penalties for businesses not meeting their reporting responsibilities under the Act.
During 2019 the legislation was the subject of a Parliamentary Inquiry by the Legislative Council Committee on Social Issues. The Committee recommended that the Act be implemented on or before 1st January 2021. The NSW Government responded to the Inquiry report on 24th September. Rather than announcing a date for implementing the Act, the Government indicated it would enter into harmonisation discussions with the Commonwealth.
Why is it that an Act promoted by the NSW Premier as “a moral imperative” has been orphaned for over two years and may continue in that phase for some time yet? Citizens of NSW have an opportunity to petition the Government for the immediate implementation of the Modern Slavery Act. When 20,000 NSW residents sign the e-petition, it automatically gets tabled for a debate in the House. Click here to sign the petition.
