Modern Slavery Obligations: A Commonwealth And NSW Perspective

Background

On 1 January 2019, the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) ("Commonwealth Act") came into effect and established a national modern slavery reporting requirement. However, this Commonwealth Act had two key inconsistencies in the reporting requirements with the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW) ("NSW Act") as follows:

• the NSW Act reporting threshold was initially $50 million annual revenue, whereas the Commonwealth Act threshold was $100 million annual revenue; and
• the NSW Act includes provisions for fines of up to $1,100,000.00 for failing to publish a statement or providing false or misleading information while the Commonwealth Act does not include financial penalties.