When the wrong messenger delivers the right message
There are moments in advocacy when you have to sit with serious discomfort. This is one of them.
The Trump administration is proposing a 12.5% tariff on Australia for failing to ban imports of goods made with forced labour. The motivation is protectionism, not compassion. The White House is not losing sleep over the 50 million people trapped in forced labour, child labour and bonded servitude.
And yet. The underlying finding is correct.
Australia has no laws preventing forced labour goods from entering our market. A solar panel, a tin of tuna, a cheap T-shirt made by someone who couldn't leave or refuse can sit on an Australian shelf with no questions asked. The same goods are banned in the US, Canada, and increasingly across Europe. We are becoming the destination of last resort for goods other countries won't touch.
When Australia's Trade Minister claimed we have "robust, comprehensive and world-leading legislation," I understand the diplomatic impulse, but after nearly 30 years in this movement, I can't let it stand. Three years ago, an independent review found our Modern Slavery Act had not caused meaningful change. The government accepted the easy recommendations and set aside the one that would actually work: mandatory due diligence. Banning forced labour goods at the border wasn't even considered. It was ruled out of scope entirely.
Parliament has tried, and tried again
What makes the government's position even harder to defend is that this is not new ground. Parliament has had three separate opportunities to ban the import of goods made with forced labour. Each one failed.
Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Uyghur Forced Labour) Bill 2020, discharged in 2021.
Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Forced Labour) Bill 2021, lapsed in 2022.
Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Forced Labour) Bill 2022, lapsed in 2025.
Three bills. Three failures. Meanwhile, the US passed its Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021. Canada has its Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act. The EU is implementing both its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and a Forced Labour import ban that will prohibit goods made with forced labour from entering the EU market. Australia keeps introducing bills and letting them die.
The pattern is not a lack of awareness. It is a lack of will.
A race to the bottom for business
This matters beyond morality. Think of it like food safety standards. If one café must meet strict hygiene rules and another doesn't, the second undercuts on price, not through efficiency, but by cutting corners that harm people. Businesses doing the right thing on supply chain integrity are competing against companies that face no such requirement. That's a race to the bottom.
Modelling from Fair Supply estimates that more than 21% of all goods imported into Australia last financial year (about $1 in every $5 spent on imports) were linked to supply chains where coercion, debt bondage and other forms of modern slavery are known to occur. Every company competing honestly is being undercut by those who are not. Reform doesn't just protect workers; it levels the playing field.
Australians expect better
Our research at Be Slavery Free, conducted with Baptist World Aid, found 70% of Australians believe it's the government's responsibility to keep forced labour goods off our shelves. Seven in ten want their shopping habits to reflect ethical values. They're asking for basic assurance that what they buy wasn't made at someone else's expense.
More than 100 investors, businesses, unions, academics and civil society organisations have called on the Federal Government to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act, specifically to require companies to act, not just report. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has called on Australia to introduce mandatory human rights due diligence. The pressure is coming from every direction.
Let's be honest about the messenger too
Agreeing with the outcome does not mean ignoring who is delivering it. The United States has significant problems of its own when it comes to forced and exploitative labour, and it is worth naming them.
The US remains one of only 17 countries in the world that legally permits forced prison labour. The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which abolished slavery, contains an explicit exception: slavery and involuntary servitude are permitted 'as a punishment for crime.' This loophole means incarcerated workers can be compelled to work for wages as low as 16 cents an hour, with major companies profiting from the arrangement. The US is in the same company as North Korea, Russia and Zimbabwe on this issue.
Then there is child labour. Violations of US child labour laws have surged by 88% since 2019. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of minors employed in violation of child labour laws increased by 283%. Agriculture is the highest-risk sector, with an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 children working on US farms, predominantly from migrant communities. In February 2023, the Department of Labor found over 100 migrant children working in meat processing facilities across eight states, many on overnight shifts doing dangerous work.
At the state level, the rollbacks are accelerating. Since 2021, 28 states have introduced bills to weaken child labour protections, and 12 have enacted them. Indiana now allows 16 and 17-year-olds to work the same hours as adults. Kentucky passed legislation permitting non-profit employers to hire children as young as 12. Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri and Ohio have made it easier to employ children in manufacturing, construction and meat processing, in some cases without work permits and on overnight shifts.
The Trump administration is lecturing Australia about forced labour while rolling back protections for child workers at home. That contradiction deserves to be said out loud.
The right thing, for the right reasons
None of this changes what Australia needs to do. The tariff threat is an uncomfortable prod in the right direction, from an administration that has no moral authority to deliver it. But the 50 million people in forced labour don't have the luxury of waiting for a perfect messenger.
Australia should ban the import of goods made with forced labour. Not because Trump says so, but because it is the right thing to do. Because Australian consumers expect it. Because businesses that operate ethically deserve a level playing field. Because we have sat on three lapsed bills and a watered-down Modern Slavery Act for long enough.
The Australian Government should not need a tariff threat to do what is right. But here we are.
It's time to act.