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Your soul is tired of working in Parliament.
There is something to do with the worst people everyday, dishonesty, hypocrisy. It's exhausting. It's like being in Bancini de Vol over the cuckoo's nest: "I'm tired and it's a lot of madness."
However, from time to time, good can still be done here.
And last night was one of those nights in the Senate. The color looks bright on a black background.
The Senate pbaded Australia's first modern slavery law last night after years of advocacy by civil society groups.
The legislation will require companies whose consolidated annual business figure exceeds $ 100 million to seek out and report the use of slavery – even the risk of slavery – in their chains. Global supply.
This will make the supply chains of the largest Australian companies much more transparent and potentially help millions of people around the world.
This will affect about 3,000 companies. They will be mandated to produce annual declarations on slavery, validated at the board level and published within six months of their annual report, showing what prevents them from taking to eliminate the problem. slavery of their supply chains.
The government estimates that the regulation will have a regulatory cost of $ 65.8 million, or approximately $ 21,950 per reporting entity.
The media have a role to play from now on.
The purpose of the legislation is not to criticize companies every year when they publish statements about slavery revealing the risks of slavery that exist in their chains. ; supply. It's the contrary.
Companies must be commended for having published the fact that they have discovered new risks related to slavery in their supply chains, because that is what will help everyone – l & rsquo; Company itself, regional and national governments, civil society groups – to learn more about this horrific practice. and remove it.
The law is not perfect, of course.
The lawyers really wanted the corporate reporting threshold to be $ 25 million or $ 50 million instead of $ 100 million. They also wanted the government to create the role of commissioner of slavery, which did not happen. But these are amendments that can be made to the legislation in a future legislature.
Many people should be commended, especially the leader Stop the Traffik – a coalition of churches and civil society groups and unions that has been working tirelessly for years to bring the Australian Parliament to this stage.
Fuzz Kitto and Carolyn Kitto lead the Australian arm of Stop The Traffik.
Some members deserve a special mention:
Liberal Member of Parliament Julie Bishop, who was the key in the beginning. Under his influence, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade began to seriously address the issue.
Liberal Member of Parliament Chris Crewther (who, in front of Parliament, worked as an international lawyer with the Kosovo Property Agency at the United Nations Property Rights, resolving property claims for people who have lost their property rights. possession of their property because of the war). He produced a report on the issue of modern slavery, Hidden at the sight, which is one of the best parliamentary reports you can read anywhere in the world.
Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds, who has expertly pushed for this legislation behind the scenes. Liberal Member of Parliament Alex Hawke had a hand in the conduct of the project.
Labor MP Clare O'Neil led this case on the side of the Labor Party and devoted a tremendous amount of work, going beyond party boundaries.
Labor Senators Penny Wong and Lisa Singh.
Senator of the Greens Nick McKim, Independent South Australian Senator Tim Storer, Senator of the Alliance Center Rex Patrickand senator Derryn Hinch.
Congratulations to all.
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