Source: World Vision New Zealand
World Vision New Zealand welcomes the Education and Workforce Select Committee’s report on the Modern Slavery Bill and urges Parliament to pass the legislation before the election with strong cross-party support.
More than 340 groups and individuals submitted on the draft Bill, with significant support from businesses, advocacy organisations, and more than 900 handwritten submissions from children who attended World Vision Youth Conferences.
World Vision New Zealand’s Head of Advocacy and Justice, Rebekah Armstrong, says the strong showing of support sends a clear message.
“New Zealanders want this law. Businesses, investors, charities, children and communities have all said it is time for stronger measures to combat modern slavery, for greater accountability in our supply chains, and for stronger protection for people, especially children, who are harmed by exploitation.
“We are pleased the Select Committee has made some important improvements to the Bill and, crucially, that it’s retained a clear pathway for the Bill to become stronger over time.
“Now we need our politicians to heed the voices of New Zealanders and pass this Bill with support from across the house before the election,” she says.
World Vision welcomes several important features of the bill that have been retained, including:
- The public reporting framework
- The creation of a modern slavery register
- A three-year review that keeps further reform including an Anti-slavery Commissioner and enhanced victim-survivor provisions on the table
The organisation also welcomes stronger transparency requirements, including for businesses to report on due diligence actions to identify, address, prevent, mitigate and remediate modern slavery risks, as well as statutory functions requiring guidance to support implementation.
Armstrong says the Bill will help improve supply-chain visibility, encourage better governance, and give investors, consumers and the public detailed information about how organisations are responding to exploitation and slavery risks.
“Reporting and transparency can change business behaviour. They create expectations, improve internal systems, and make it much harder for modern slavery risks to remain invisible.
“Importantly, businesses will have to report not only on the modern slavery risks they face, but on the due diligence actions they are taking and whether those actions are effective.
“That creates much greater transparency about what businesses are actually doing to prevent modern slavery which matters, especially for children who remain highly vulnerable to exploitation and hazardous child labour in global supply chains,” Armstrong says
World Vision is pleased to see a statutory review within three years included in the legislation because it provides an opportunity to assess whether business behaviour and supply-chain practices are changing.
“Internationally, modern slavery laws are moving beyond disclosure and transparency alone towards mandatory due diligence, stronger enforcement, and clearer expectations for businesses to prevent harm. It’s important for New Zealand to keep in step with these developments.
“This Bill does not yet require mandatory due diligence, but this is an important and long-awaited step forward.
“New Zealand will finally have a dedicated framework requiring greater transparency about modern slavery risks and what businesses are doing about them,” Armstrong says.