Camilla Belich: Labour MP on the party's new bill to address modern slavery

Labour's taken quick action on demands from thousands of Kiwi teens to counter modern slavery.

The students today delivered letters to Parliament - written at World Vision NZ Youth Conferences and universities.

Labour's Camilla Belich announced a draft bill today to set up an anti-slavery Commissioner.

National put a similar bill to the ballot this year. 

Belich says nothing currently addresses issues of modern slavery - so any start is a good one. 

"There'll be a chance to see whether that Commissioner is effective in their role, and a chance to look at whether there's more that needs to be done in that space."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Labors put out a release today they're taking action on
modern slavery. Camilla Balich is the MP drafted a bill
which she hopes will bring an end to modern day
slavery if passed. The Member's bill would create an anti
slavery Commissioner and require entities to report back on their
anti slavery efforts. And she is with me now, Camilla,

(00:21):
welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Do commissioners work, they work for supermarkets.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, I think what is clear in this particular situation
is at the moment we've got really nothing in New
Zealand to address what is a really really serious issue.
So what this spell does is implement what experts in
this area I think are the best practice in order
to address what is I think most New Zealanders will
be really horrified about, which is exploitation in our supply

(00:52):
chain and also in New Zealand. So I think that
their recommendation is that there is an anti slave commissioner,
and you know there is also a review cause in
this bill, so there'll be a chance to see whether
that commissioner is effective in their role and a chance
to look at it where it is more that needs
to be done in that space.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
You're also asking that the entities companies will be required
to report back on their anti slavery efforts. Is that
every single business how many businesses?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Exactly? No, that is not every single business. Is really
focuses on big businesses, So it's businesses with a turnover
of over fifty million, which is, as you can imagine,
quite large businesses within New Zealand. That number was landed
upon because that was when the consultation happened under the
last government. That was the most supported option in terms

(01:46):
of a number, in terms of the size of a business,
and also that's quite comparable to other jurisdictions that have
modern slavery legislation in place. So at this stage it
really is larger businesses. But that is also something that
we could look at over time, depending on how accessful
the regime is in relation to those large entities.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
How many modern day slaves do we have in New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I really don't know the answer for that, and I
think that's really concerning that we don't have data on that.
And I think that the reasons I'm so.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Tamil isn't that important I mean, if you're going to
pay for a commissioner, you're going to get businesses to report,
You've got paperwork, you've got cost you've got all this stuff,
and we don't even know how bad the problem is.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, we know it is a big problem when we
know that there are a lot of people who have
been trafficked and badly treated. And of course this spell
doesn't just focus on people in New Zealand. It also
talks about people in our supply chain. And World Vision
is a group that's been advocating for us for a
long time and they estimate, I think that each household
spends about seventy seven dollars a week towards supply chains

(02:46):
which are impacted by exploitation and slavery. So you can
see that they do have data to seduce that it
is a problem and that New Zealanders are unwittingly participating
in something that they would find absolutely apporrent.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I think, all right, Carmel st your time. That's Comelo
Belich to the Labor MP who's got the members bill.
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