Analysis by a coalition of human rights organisations, church groups and academics has revealed Australia's largest companies are failing to adequately comply with the country's modern slavery laws.
According to the Modern Slavery Act, it's estimated around 3,000 companies are required to report yearly on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, and they must detail actions to address those risks.
But a new report released on Monday revealed that 77 per cent of companies are failing to meet all of the criteria required to ensure the risks of forced labour are addressed in their supply chains.
The report also revealed that of the approximately 40.3 million people around the world experiencing modern slavery, 15,000 of them are in Australia.
"The Modern Slavery Act was meant to drive a ‘race to the top’ by business to tackle modern slavery, but our research indicates most companies have barely left the starting blocks," senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre and report co-author Freya Dinshaw said.
The report also revealed that 72 per cent of garment companies reviewed failed to mention any risk of Uyghur forced labour in their supply chain.
For Ramila Chanisheff, the President of the Australian Uyghur Womens’ Tangritagh Association, the first question she thinks of when she goes shopping for a t-shirt is: "where is this piece of clothing being made?"
China has long been accused of using Uyghur forced labour for garment production. Source: Getty Images
Ms Chanisheff represents hundreds of Uyghur-Australians who have lost their family members due to policies of the Chinese government.
Many of these family members are believed to have been sent to forced labour camps to create garments and shoes for international brands.
"Everyday Australians are buying clothes made through Uyghur forced labour," she said.
Laws must be strengthened, experts say
The report's authors have called on the government to further strengthen the Modern Slavery Act, two years after it came into effect, to ensure companies are held accountable for their chosen supply chains.
Non-compliance with the law's requirement for companies to conduct an annual report currently attracts no penalty - it is one of the recommendations the report authors are urging the government to adopt.
"It is already pretty clear that reporting alone is not going to be enough to drive the fundamental changes to corporate practices needed to eliminate modern slavery.
"If the government is serious about eliminating modern slavery, it must strengthen the Modern Slavery Act by making it enforceable and require companies to take action."
Justine Nolan, the director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales, explained the law's current approach on mandatory reporting defeats the purpose of what the law should achieve: reducing the risk of modern slavery happening.
‘Early corporate responses to reporting under the Modern Slavery Act indicate that there is a real danger of prioritising a ‘tick-box’ approach to compliance," she said.
"We are now at a critical juncture where there is some awareness of the risks, but the corporate responses are cosmetic rather than substantive.
"This needs to change."
Mark Zirnsak, social justice advocate for the Uniting Church in Australia, said it is the government's responsibility to provide "targeted guidance" to ensure businesses provide genuine engagement with their reporting requirements.
"The Australian government ... needs to be developing more targeted guidance to assist corporations to identify and respond to modern slavery in high-risk industries and high-risk locations," he said.
In the federal government's Modern Slavery statement 2020-21, it said: "The Government is committed to ensuring that officials undertaking procurement activities on behalf of the Commonwealth understand modern slavery, are aware of what it can look like in global supply chains and operations, and are equipped to assess modern slavery risks in procurements."
SBS News has contacted the Department of Home Affairs for comment.
