The Morrison government is facing growing calls to tighten anti-slavery laws with the Australian Council of Trade Unions arguing the current rules leave the door “wide open” for products made with Chinese forced labour to be imported.
With the UK flagging a new crackdown this week, the Australian Border Force said the federal government was “closely monitoring” actions in other countries and would consider potential fines for breaches in a forthcoming review.
The ACTU and Human Rights Watch are leading the calls for reforms to Australia’s Modern Slavery Act, arguing the law is weak because it only applies to businesses with annual revenue of more than $100m and does not impose financial penalties.
The secretary of the peak union body, Sally McManus, said without fines there would be “no incentive for companies to report what they have done to deal with slavery in their supply chains”.
“Australia’s Modern Slavery Act does not go far enough, leaving the door wide open for products made with Chinese forced labour to slip through the cracks in our system,” she told Guardian Australia.
McManus also called on clothing brands and retailers to “stop using forced labour” in the Xinjiang region “and end their complicity in the Chinese government’s human rights abuses”.
She said she believed it was “a grave error to not include an independent anti-slavery commissioner as part of the Modern Slavery Act” and urged the Morrison government to revisit that decision.
The debate comes as the UK moved this week to impose more requirements on companies that buy goods from the Xinjiang region, with fines to be imposed on firms that do not show due diligence in cleaning up their supply chains.
In outlining the clampdown, the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said China’s “truly horrific” treatment of the Uighur people – including the use of internment camps, arbitrary detention and forced labour – amounted to torture. China denies the accusations.
Australia’s law, introduced by the Turnbull government in 2018 and modelled on the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, requires Australia’s biggest companies to publish annual statements on the steps they are taking to address modern slavery in their supply chains and operations.
Elaine Pearson, the Australia director of Human Rights Watch, said the Morrison government “should absolutely be putting more safeguards in place to prevent the import of products made by using forced labour anywhere in the world, including in China’s Xinjiang region”.
“Australia does not currently require importers to prove there is no forced labour in their supply chains,” Pearson said.
Human Rights Watch was concerned, she said, about allegations of forced labour in sectors such as personal protective equipment and masks, cotton, and hair products sourced from Xinjiang.
“Any company that is importing these products to Australia from Xinjiang should do their due diligence to ensure they are not complicit in human rights violations and given the horrendous human rights violations occurring in Xinjiang, they should be making their due diligence strategy and findings public,” Pearson said.
Jason Wood, the assistant minister for customs, community safety and multicultural affairs, was approached for comment on whether the government was open to strengthening the Modern Slavery Act or considering any Xinjiang-specific measures.
The questions were referred to the ABF, which left open the option of changes being part of an imminent review that the 2018 laws mandated be held after three years.
“The review will consider all issues that may improve the operation and effectiveness of the Act, including penalties and compliance,” an ABF spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the Australian government was committed to tackling modern slavery, including forced labour, “wherever it occurs”. It was “closely monitoring other jurisdictions’ responses to modern slavery”, including the UK move.
The ABF said the government had considered issues of penalties and oversight, including an Anti-Slavery Commissioner, when the laws were first developed.
“Based on extensive stakeholder feedback, the government considered market scrutiny and reputational risk and reward, rather than financial penalties, to be the most effective drivers of compliance,” the spokesperson said.
“The Act is subject to robust oversight from parliament and civil society, including through the National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery.”
Labor has previously spoken out against the lack of penalties for breaches of the Modern Slavery Act, arguing “we shouldn’t be leaving it to business to police themselves on slavery”.
McManus said the ACTU – which last year joined the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region – stood in solidarity with trade unions and civil society organisations from around the world in calling on businesses to stop using forced labour in Xinjiang.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, used a speech to the UN Human Rights Council in September to criticise the Chinese government for enforcing “repressive measures” against minorities in Xinjiang, prompting a furious reaction from Beijing.
The Australian government describes modern slavery as situations where coercion, threats or deception are used to undermine victims’ freedom. It can include human trafficking, servitude, forced labour and forced marriage.
China’s mission to the UN in Geneva hit back at what it called “groundless accusations” and argued the “legitimate rights of people of all ethnic communities” were fully guaranteed in Xinjiang.
The UK’s move follows a push by the United States to strengthen its own screening of products that may have been made in Xinjiang.
In September, US Customs and Border Protection issued five notices to block the entry into the US of products “produced with state-sponsored forced labour” in the Xinjiang region. They include certain hair products, apparel, cotton and computer parts.
