Related Papers
Consultation on a proposed 'Modern Slavery Act' (business supply chains and operations) Submission to the Attorney-General's Department
Jolyon Ford
Australia proposes legislation modeled on section 54 of the UK's Modern Slavery Act (2015). The proposed legislation should preserve those of its current elements (such as not including legislated penalties for non-reporting) that are calculated to encourage widespread and pro-active business uptake and engagement. This is because the point of all this is not the adoption of ‘tough’ regulatory postures for their own sake (even if these were politically viable): instead the point is to find ways to incentivise and support Australian entities to systematically identify and to prevent or address the underlying human rights risks.
Defining 'Supply Chain' in a Modern Slavery Act for Australia
2018 •
Jolyon Ford
What are ideal viable regulatory models for public authorities to address the serious human rights risks that might exist in a business’s operations or supply chains, especially abroad? This paper isolates one regulatory design issue on prevailing models statutory requirements for certain firms to report on human rights risks in their supply chain: how, if at all, should such legislation seek to define ‘supply chain’?
Federal Law Review
Should Australia be Embracing the Modern Slavery Model of Regulation?
2018 •
Ingrid Landau
Australia is following in the footsteps of the UK and US and embracing the discourse and regulatory technologies associated with modem slavery regulation. This paper offers a critical perspective on this development. It begins with a brief account of the concept's rise to prominence, and discusses the political economy in which it is embedded. It then explores some of the advantages, as well as the pitfalls, associated with the frame, and its associated regulatory approaches, techniques and discourse. The authors raise three broad sets of concerns. The first goes to the danger of exclusively focusing on criminal justice responses to penalise and deter those who practice modern slavery while neglecting other approaches that may help address the causes of the phenomenon. The second set of concerns goes to the tendency to exaggerate the transformative potential of one of the dominant regulatory responses in this area: the mandatory corporate supply chain reporting provision. The third set of concerns relate to the implications of addressing issues of worker exploitation and mistreatment through a modern slavery and human trafficking approach rather than through other well established and newer regulatory means. To support the third argument, the authors compare the modern slavery approach with two alternate approaches: labour regulation and human rights due diligence. The authors emphasise the need for vigilance to ensure that the embracement of a modern slavery frame does not shift attention (and resources) away from more thorough and effective means of securing greater corporate accountability for labour standards in supply chains.
CPA Australia reports
REGULATING TRANSPARENCY AND DISCLOSURES ON MODERN SLAVERY IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS A "CONVERSATION STARTER" OR A "TICK-BOX EXERCISE"? A RESEARCH PROJECT SUPPORTED BY A GRANT UNDER CPA AUSTRALIA'S GLOBAL RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES PROGRAM
2019 •
Jolyon Ford, justine nolan
Working from a combination of disciplinary backgrounds (law and sustainability accounting) and in anticipation of the Australian federal legislation, our project’s research had two primary aims: • To evaluate the evolving model of legislative disclosure or reporting regimes focusing on modern slavery risks and to ask if, and how promoting statutory reporting requirements ('transparency' aim) might contribute to substantive human rights improvement ('accountability' aim). • To conduct empirical research (through survey and interview) to examine emerging practices (in Australia and the UK) as to what might constitute best practice in addressing modern slavery risks in supply chains.
2007 •
Christopher McCrudden
'The Necessity of Due Diligence': Lessons from Australian Convict Contracting
George Argyrous, Gary Sturgess, Sara Rahman
All but a few of the 162,000 convicts transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868 were shipped by private contractors, although the contractual arrangements changed over time. This paper, delivered to an ANZSOG seminar in Sydney on 26 February 2016, considers what worked and what didn't, and the lessons for government contracting today.
Socio-Economic Review
The Domestic Politics of Corporate Accountability Legislation: Struggles over the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act
Andreas Ruhmkorf, Genevieve LeBaron
Over the last decade, the norm of corporate accountability for labour standards in global supply chains has become increasingly prominent within the transnational governance arena. As global governance initiatives to spur due diligence for labour standards and combat exploitation in global supply chains— especially its most severe forms frequently described as modern slavery— have proliferated, societal coalitions have pressured states to pass domestic legislation to the same effect. In this paper, we examine the regulatory processes that spurred the passage of one piece of anti-slavery legislation, the United Kingdom’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act. Our findings corroborate a number of established expectations regarding business opposition towards new legislation to raise public labour standards, but also provide a clearer picture of the mechanisms through which industry actors impact policymaking processes. Paradoxically, such mechanisms include business actors’ championing of weak regulatory initiatives, CSR activity, and partnering with civil society organizations. Understanding industry actors’ use of these strategies improves our understanding of how transnational norms of corporate accountability and anti-slavery are being contested and shaped at domestic scales.
Human Rights in the Supply Chains of Australian Businesses: Opportunities for Legislative Reform
Martijn Boersma
This paper reflects on legislative measures that address human rights issues in global supply chains and argues that Australian government and companies should learn from measures taken in other jurisdictions in the face of urgent human rights abuses.
International Journal of Law in Context
A Review of Christopher McCrudden, Buying Social Justice: Equality, Government Procurement, and Legal Change
2011 •
Tim Murphy
This is a review of Christopher McCrudden's 2007 book, Buying Social Justice: Equality, Government Procurement, and Legal Change (Oxford University Press), which deals with the law regulating government contracting or public procurement in national and transnational contexts and which examines how governments use this activity to produce social justice results. McCrudden calls this use of procurement "linkage"; and the book focuses on linkages in which governments use their purchasing power to advance equality and non-discrimination goals. The review argues that while the book provides a thorough and scholarly guide to the issues at stake in considering procurement linkages McCrudden is wise to frame his analysis in very loose terms vis-à-vis the idea of justice. The subject of his book relates to the question of imposing organisational conditions on the operation of the trading order with a view to bringing about changes in the social order. Justice w...
Australian Journal of Public Administration
Commissioning Human Services: Lessons from Australian Convict Contracting
2016 •
George Argyrous
