Australia: Modern slavery legal reform - criminal liability and new compliance expectations

There has been an important development in Australian modern slavery law for companies with an annual revenue of more than $100 million.

Australia is moving from a reporting and transparency requirement to a corporate criminal and civil liability regime. Early indications from the Attorney General's Department suggest the Australian government intends to enact these reforms by next year, although there will likely be a transition period.

The proposed offences are:

• A corporate criminal offence where companies fail to prevent modern slavery.
• A civil penalty regime for non-compliance with modern slavery reporting obligations.

The government is consulting on penalties, deferred prosecution agreements, and remedies for victims. 

There will be a statutory defence where companies can show they took reasonable steps to prevent modern slavery.

Read this briefing note prepared by our colleagues at Allens for more detail.