Long-awaited Modern Slavery Bill introduced in Aotearoa New Zealand

Reflecting the trend of increasing expectations of businesses in relation to human rights, Aotearoa New Zealand has introduced a bipartisan Modern Slavery Bill which would require annual modern slavery reports by large New Zealand businesses and others doing business in New Zealand.

What the bill includes

Similar to the modern slavery reporting regime in Australia, reporting entities would be required to prepare an annual Modern Slavery Statement, which must be submitted to a Modern Slavery Register.

Mandatory reporting criteria are similar but more extensive than those in Australia, and would require entities to:

• describe their structure, operations and supply chains
• report on any incidents of modern slavery and how they remediated them
• report on known or anticipated modern slavery risks in their operations or supply chains and the actions to assess, address and mitigate them, including due diligence and remediation processes
• provide details of any complaints made in relation to modern slavery and how they have been investigated and remediated
• describe how they assess the effectiveness of their actions
• describe any training and consultation of employees in their own operations or supply chain.

Reporting entities will be those with consolidated revenue of NZ$100 million or more that are New Zealand entities or overseas companies that have done business in New Zealand.

While the Bill does not introduce a mandatory due diligence requirement, it may be difficult to comply with reporting criteria without first having undertaken some level of due diligence into the entity’s operations and supply chains.

Importantly, the Bill goes further than the current Australian equivalent in a few key respects, by introducing:

• a comprehensive enforcement regime with offences for failing to prepare or publish a Modern Slavery Statement or for knowingly making false or misleading statements
• director liability
• potential public sector procurement exclusions for entities that have contravened the Act

Note: the Australian Government is conducting consultations on potential enhancements to the Australian Modern Slavery Act following the 2023 review of the Act, including potential penalties for non-compliance. givvable will keep you updated on key developments in this space.

What should organizations do to prepare?

While the proposed law may change as it goes through the parliamentary process, organizations that may be in scope should start preparing now, including establishing governance frameworks, ensuring they have appropriate policies and due diligence processes, and conducting risk assessments, training and supplier engagement.

For organizations already reporting under an existing modern slavery reporting regime, check to see if your existing processes and practices will be sufficient.

For organizations supplying to large NZ entities or entities operating in NZ, be prepared for increased inquiry in relation to your modern slavery and broader human rights risk assessment processes and practices.

How givvable can help

givvable’s Modern Slavery toolkit supports organizations to:

• VET: Instantly validate supplier actions and initiatives to respect human rights and prevent modern slavery.
• SCREEN: Assess suppliers, using our dynamic materiality assessment, for relevance to your organization, risk for modern slavery and action (mitigating, hindering or inaction) to prevent modern slavery and protect human rights.
• ENGAGE: Foster supplier awareness and encourage actionable steps through givvable’s free Human Rights Best Practice Module.