The legislation was announced to great fanfare last year, but the new government says addressing forced labour is ‘not a priority’ right now, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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Slavery legislation ‘not a priority’
It was announced last year as setting the stage for one of the “world’s strongest reporting systems for tackling modern slavery”. But legislation aimed at combatting forced labour, both in NZ and abroad, has been dropped, with workplace relations and safety minister Brooke van Velden saying the issue is not a priority for the government. The change in direction became unmistakable last month, when Newsroom’s Sam Sachdeva reported that the government’s Modern Slavery Leadership Advisory Group, made up of business, union and human rights representatives, had been quietly dissolved. At the time the group’s chair, former Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe, said he was disappointed by the move. “We have a proud heritage as a nation standing up for what’s right and fair. Yet our voice is now missing on this issue, while people are being abused and their lives destroyed, producing goods and services that we consume,” Fyfe said.
Businesses argued in favour of law
Under the proposed legislation, companies with more than $20m in revenue a year would have been required to report on actions they were taking to address the risk of exploitation in their operations and supply chains. The plans announced following a years-long pressure campaign to introduce a modern slavery law, including a public call for action from some of New Zealand’s largest businesses, including Barkers, Coca-Cola NZ, Countdown, Fix and Fogg, PWC and The Warehouse. When news of the u-turn landed in May, business consultant Gary Shaw told Newsroom the government’s “well-meaning but misguided” attempt to protect businesses from red tape made no sense when so many companies wanted the legislation.
The reason for businesses’ enthusiasm is largely to do with competition: as more and more countries adopt modern slavery laws, NZ exporters will find have to deal with trickier supply chain management and increased legal risks in jurisdictions with stricter regulations. For example, the European Parliament recently approved a regulation enabling the EU to prohibit the sale, import and export of goods made using forced labour.
Gloriavale members allege slavery
While the demise of the modern slavery law got little attention earlier this year, it was back in the spotlight following news last month that former Gloriavale members had filed a multi-million-dollar class action lawsuit against the Christian commune where they claim they were held as slaves from birth. They are also suing five government agencies which they say breached international treaties by failing to protect girls and boys from the worst forms of child labour, RNZ reports. The case demonstrates that modern slavery is not just an overseas issue. The 2023 Global Slavery Index estimated that on any given day in 2021, there were 8,000 individuals living in modern slavery in New Zealand. While New Zealand ranks relatively low on the index compared to other Asia Pacific countries, the report noted that “several forms of modern slavery are reported in New Zealand, including forced labour, forced sexual exploitation of adults, commercial sexual exploitation of children, and forced marriage”.
Need for NZ law raised by UN human rights panel
New Zealand’s lack of modern slavery law was brought up during New Zealand’s appearance before the United Nations in April. The UK, US and Mexico were among the countries who called on New Zealand to do more to address risks of forced labour in businesses’ supply chains, Newshub reported. The call was part of the UN’s periodic review of New Zealand’s human rights record, where other topics of concern were the high number of incarcerated Māori, particularly women and young people, and New Zealand’s increasingly large remand population. It came a year after criticism of NZ’s response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care by the UN Committee against Torture. The committee said it was “seriously concerned” that “no individual has been investigated or held accountable for the numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment” and “urged New Zealand to implement the inquiry’s recommendations and to provide victims with full redress, including compensation and rehabilitation”.