ETAC Australia commends the Australian Government for accepting a recommendation made in our submission on the statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth)

ETAC’s submission recommended at paragraph 69 that the Modern Slavery Guidance document “be amended to include organ trafficking as a stated offence so that businesses, who may only read the Guidance and not the Criminal Code, are informed about organ trafficking given Australia’s close geographical association with countries associated with organ trafficking.”

The Guidance document is produced by the Australian Government to provide guidance to business entities in their modern slavery reporting obligations. The Guidance does not contain the words “organ trafficking”, even though organ trafficking offences are modern slavery offences pursuant to s4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth).

The Australian Government has released the statutory review report which can be found here: https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-05/Report%20-%20Statutory%20Review%20of%20the%20Modern%20Slavery%20Act%202018.PDF.

The report raises important points made in the ETAC submission and makes a recommendation that the “Attorney-General’s Department review the Guidance for Reporting Entities to ensure that the description of modern slavery in Appendix 1 of the Guide accurately represents the terms of the Criminal Code.” (Recommendation 3).