On 17 July 2025, the Federal Anti-Slavery Commissioner (“Commissioner”) issued a letter outlining that his office and the Attorney General’s Department are prioritising oversight to ensure that all entities captured by the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) (“Act”) are satisfying their annual reporting obligations.
The Act captures all entities who have a consolidated annual revenue of $100 million or more and who are Australian entities or otherwise carry on business in Australia at any time during the relevant reporting period. This threshold includes the revenue of subsidiaries and other entities that are deemed to be “owned or controlled” by that entity.
The Commissioner outlined in his letter that the Attorney-General’s Department is progressing work to detect and identify reporting entities that have failed to meet their legal obligations to report. This will inform targeted action to address non-compliance.
Whilst the Commissioner did not specify what this “target action” may be, there is power under s 16A(4) of the Act for the Attorney General to “name and shame” non-complying entities by publishing their names on the Modern Slavery Register. This will also include information such as the specific request made by the Attorney General’s Department to remediate the non-compliance and the reasons why the Attorney General is satisfied that the entity has failed to comply with this request.
The Commissioner also flagged the Government’s ‘in principle’ agreement to introduce penalties for non-compliance with the Act, in particular for reporting entities failing to comply with their annual reporting obligations. This was confirmed in the Governments response to the May 2023 review of Act by Professor John McMillan, AO (“Review Report”). More information on the Governments response to the Review Report can be found in our article here.
As we are one 1 month into the FY26 reporting period (for those reporting on a financial year basis), this letter is a timely reminder for entities to ensure they are:
1. Preparing their FY25 Modern Slavery Statements which are due for lodgement by 31 December 2025; and
2. Reviewing due diligence steps undertaken in prior reporting periods and preparing action plans on how they can progress their due diligence efforts in the FY26 reporting period and beyond.
For entities who are close to the reporting threshold, it is important to review their consolidated revenue calculations and projections to ensure that they are aware of when they will be expected to report under the Act, and the steps that they will need to take to produce a modern slavery statement at the relevant time.
If you have queries about your reporting obligations and your modern slavery compliance framework more broadly, please contact Emma Peters, Alexandra Kenny and Barbara Vrettos for more information.
This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only and does not constitute professional legal advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional legal advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication and to the extent permitted by law, Cowell Clarke does not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting or refraining to act in relation on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based on it.