Submission to the Strengthening the Modern Slavery Act Consultation

The Modern Slavery Act 2018 forces large corporations operating in Australia to report on what they are doing to reduce modern slavery occurring within their supply chains. The problem with this legislation is that many large multinational corporations who do business in Australia do not understand the difference between sex work and trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practice. This misunderstanding has led to corporations engaging in discriminatory practices such as debanking, denial of accommodation, and surveillance of sex workers — all of which directly undermine Australia’s human rights and anti-discrimination obligations.

While Scarlet Alliance did not oppose any of the proposed changes to the Modern Slavery Act, we note that mischaracterising sex work as an inherent slavery risk not only distracts from addressing genuine cases of trafficking and exploitation, but also places migrant and sex worker communities at greater risk of harm.  Scarlet Alliance recommended that guidance materials created on reporting should explicitly note that sex work is not an inherent slavery risk, and that corporations’ actions to assess and address modern slavery risks must not breach state and territory anti-discrimination law.