"New Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s powers must be strengthened", 24 January 2024

The Human Rights Law Centre has called on the Albanese Government to strengthen the powers of its new proposed Anti-Slavery Commissioner to enable the role to more effectively tackle modern slavery.

In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the Modern Slavery Amendment (Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner) Bill 2023 (Cth), the Human Rights Law Centre welcomed the proposed new office, but said it needed greater enforcement and investigatory powers to fulfil its mandate.

The Centre is calling for the proposed Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s role to be expanded to explicitly include:

• monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Modern Slavery Act (including through the issuing of penalties or infringement notices);
• undertaking investigations to detect and expose cases of modern slavery; and
• receiving complaints and supporting workers subjected to modern slavery to seek redress.

The budget for the office (currently set at $8 million over 4 years) should be expanded to support these additional functions.