On November 29, Australia became only the second country in the
world to enact legislation to fight modern slavery when the
country's Parliament passed the Modern Slavery Act. The new Australian
legislation is similar to the UK's Modern Slavery Act, which was enacted in 2015,
inasmuch as both statutes seek to fight modern slavery by getting
companies to crack down on such practices in their supply chains.
There are, however, important differences between the laws as to
their scope and enforcement.
Like the British law, the new Australian law applies only to
companies whose annual revenues exceed a threshold
amount—A$100 million in the case of the Australian law, and
£36 million for the British law ($72 million and $46 million
USD at current exchange rates). That said, the new Australian law
specifies that qualifying companies must issue reports within six
months of their fiscal year-end describing the structure of their
supply chains, the risk of modern slavery
