The Judicial Commission is pleased to announce the publication of the third in our e-resource series, Modern slavery: a guide for NSW judicial officers. Published January 2025, the resource is available in pdf format.
Modern slavery is an umbrella term used to describe a range of exploitative practices. It includes trafficking in persons, slavery, and slavery-like practices (forced labour, forced marriage servitude, debt bondage and deceptive recruiting for labour or services).
Modern slavery offences under the Criminal Code (Cth) and the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) are covered in detail as well as transparency and due diligence frameworks under the Commonwealth and NSW Modern Slavery Acts. More than 420 government departments and agencies, local councils, universities and State-owned corporations now have mandatory modern slavery due diligence and reporting obligations under NSW law. As well as criminal offences, modern slavery issues may potentially arise in some civil proceedings, ranging from AVO applications through to commercial matters.
The purpose of this book is to outline modern slavery offences, and provide contextual information including the identification of vulnerable groups, a review of attrition rates in modern slavery cases, the role of the Commonwealth and NSW Anti-slavery Commissioners, and the types of cases that are likely to arise in NSW courts. This guidance is not intended to be prescriptive.