When the Wrong Messenger Delivers the Right Message
[A LinkedIn post Carolyn Kitto OAM, Freedom Rights Activist and Modern Slavery Abolitionist]
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 – if 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 and Asia. 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 stalling on the one that would actually work: mandatory due diligence. The review didn’t even consider banning forced labour goods at the border – it was ruled out of scope entirely.
This matters beyond morality. 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 are competing against companies that face no such requirement. That’s a race to the bottom.
Australians expect better. Our research at Be Slavery Free, with Baptist World Aid, found 70% of Australians believe it’s the government’s responsibility to keep forced labour goods off our shelves. 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 – to require companies to act, not just report.
The Australian Government should not need a Trump tariff to do the right thing. But here we are.
It’s time to act.
Read the joint letter here.
