Key developments
- Modern Slavery Act – Draft Guidance
- Children’s Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment
- Open Justice Review
- Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Amendment (Inmate Behaviour) Bill 2019
- The Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug ‘Ice’
- IP Australia: Fee Review 2019-20
- Employee Share Schemes – Consultation Paper
- Draft Retirement Villages Amendment (Rules of Conduct for Operators) Regulation 2019
- Draft Ageing and Disability Commissioner Bill 2019
- Review of the Citizenship Revocation Provisions by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security
- Superannuation binding death benefit and kinship structures
- The regulation of lobbying access and influence in NSW
Modern Slavery Act – Draft Guidance
The Human Rights and Business Law Committees contributed to a Law Society submission to the Law Council regarding the Modern Slavery Act – Draft Guidance document prepared by the Department of Home Affairs.
The stated aim for the draft guidance is to ‘explain in plain language what entities need to do to comply with the reporting requirement’ contained in the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). The primary audience for the guidance is those that need to prepare a Modern Slavery Statement for their entities before the first reporting deadline (31 December 2020).
In our submission, the Law Society welcomes the draft guidance, and noted the importance of clear and comprehensive guidance to assist businesses to facilitate a ‘race for the top’ in compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). We also made a number of suggestions for how the draft guidance could be improved, including in relation to geographic and rule of law risks, the definition of ‘operations’ employed, and sector-specific case studies.
