Due to lax regulation, Australians are unwittingly spending up to $600 million a year on imported goods produced under slave labour conditions. 1
It is an offence in Australia for companies to make a financial transaction involving a slave. Yet not one Australian company has ever been prosecuted for slavery in its supply chain, and the government is not monitoring which companies import slave-produced goods.
This is a problem because some of the most mundane things in our shopping trolleys are high-risk products for slave labour. Frozen prawns from Thailand, rice from India, and cheap toys from China are just three examples. 2
In March 2013, the Commonwealth Government announced a strategy to ensure that all goods and services supplied to Government departments have a slavery-free supply chain. Giving us the same guarantee is the next step.
Join us in signing this petition, and tell the Government to give Australian consumers a Slavery Free Guarantee.
* Image: A trafficking victim shows the physical damage done to his hands while working aboard a Thai fishing boat. © EJF 2013
Notes:
- Stop the Traffik, ‘Report: Unshackling Laws Against Slavery’, 2011 ↩
- http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/ ↩
Chris W.,
Alex M.,
Leena K.,
Brad L.,
Marguerite H.,
Louie B.,
Blake W.,
Leia F.,
