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Speaker 1: Right bit of a bipartisan moment in the House for once. Yesterday,

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Speaker 1: National and Labor have teamed up to essentially fast track

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Speaker 1: a modern slavery law. It had forced big businesses one

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Speaker 1: hundred million plus to manage slavery risks. Rebecca Armstrong, World

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Speaker 1: Vision is with us this morning. Hey Rebecca, good morning.

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Speaker 1: So why is it only buginess is worth or doing

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Speaker 1: revenue more than hundred million? Do the small businesses not

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Speaker 1: have anything to do with modern slavery?

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Speaker 2: Small businesses absolutely do. Our research showed that small businesses

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Speaker 2: are just as likely to have modesty as big businesses.

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Speaker 2: I think though, that the bigger businesses have more leverage

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Speaker 2: the resources to do this, and there's always a slow

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Speaker 2: down effect that trickles down to medium and smaller businesses

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Speaker 2: through this type of regulation.

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Speaker 1: What's so, why what is the cost? It must be

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Speaker 1: significant if small businesses couldn't hack it.

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Speaker 2: No, that's not correct. There actually isn't this a large

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Speaker 2: cost to do with this law? Actually quite practical and

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Speaker 2: common sense. It's just that we find in other comparable

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Speaker 2: jurisdictions one hundred million is likely the number, and it's

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Speaker 2: because of the leverage that these companies have and because

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Speaker 2: you're not just talking about the big businesses but all

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Speaker 2: of their suppliers. There is actually a downflow effect that

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Speaker 2: will affect medium in smaller companies. Likely. Also, you see

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Speaker 2: that sometimes these thresholds start higher and then reduce as

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Speaker 2: more people become used to reporting in this type of regime.

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Speaker 1: What am I meant to do? If I'm a big

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Speaker 1: business importing stuff from overseas or whatever, what am I

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Speaker 1: actually meant to do?

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Speaker 2: You're supposed to understand your supply chains in a way

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Speaker 2: that you haven't before. So you need to understand where

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Speaker 2: there is risk of modern slavery in your supply chain.

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Speaker 2: So you might be working, for example, with a country

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Speaker 2: that has difficult labor laws, you might be hearing allegations

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Speaker 2: of really long hours, people being underpaid. If you do

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Speaker 2: hear those allegations of potential one slavery, you'd be expected

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Speaker 2: to hone in on that, understand what's happening, and then

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Speaker 2: sort it out so that this doesn't happen again. This

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Speaker 2: might be by interviewing your work as it might be

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Speaker 2: changing suppliers or contractors, and then you're supposed to report

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Speaker 2: on it in a transparent way to show that you

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Speaker 2: are in good faith, understanding your want slavery obligations, and

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Speaker 2: reporting on these.

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Speaker 1: So if I just don't talk to anyone, then I

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Speaker 1: should you know, you'd be fine because if you don't

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Speaker 1: talk to me one, you don't hear anything, then you've

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Speaker 1: absolved yourself with responsibility.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is the point you're supposed to engage with

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Speaker 2: your supply chain. Beyond care one and two. You're supposed

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Speaker 2: to understand what's going on. You're supposed to report publicly,

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Speaker 2: and there is some penalties if you don't report, if

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Speaker 2: you are providing misleading information or dishonest. But this doesn't

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Speaker 2: apply to businesses that are acting in good face. So

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Speaker 2: it's a whole different way of looking where it's important

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Speaker 2: that you make disclosures and make changes.

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Speaker 1: Will you have to basically fly there and check it out.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely not. I think in a context like New Zealand's

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Speaker 2: there'd be a lot of collaboration with companies working together.

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Speaker 2: But you are supposed to have an understanding of what's

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Speaker 2: happening in a different jurisdiction even if you're not there,

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Speaker 2: and most companies do. They do have contractors that have

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Speaker 2: strong relationships with us, or they do do audits sometimes,

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Speaker 2: but and they do speak to their workers who are

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Speaker 2: working in other places.

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Speaker 1: All right, Rebecca Armstrong, World's Vision appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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