The New South Wales Modern Slavery Act was passed by the NSW Parliament on 21 June 2018, but has not yet commenced. The NSW Government took the unusual step of indefinitely deferring its commencement. The Modern Slavery Amendment Bill 2021 was introduced to the NSW Parliament on 14 October 2021 and has progressed to its second reading speech in the NSW Parliament.

The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW) (the NSW Act) seeks to combat modern slavery (serious exploitation such as slavery, forced labour and human trafficking) and provide assistance and support for victims. A key feature of the NSW Act concerns transparency of business supply chains through the implementation of a mandatory…

Let’s first deal with the “stop” in New South Wales. The NSW Government has deferred the commencement of its Modern Slavery Act. The Special Minister of State has received advice that the Act “contains a number of defects requiring urgent attention,” with some of those defects rendering “some provisions of…