Federal Government Procurement and the Implementation of Modern Slavery Legislation (May 2022)
Webinar presented by:
Dr Ingrid Landau (Monash University) and
Professor John Howe (University of Melbourne)
Tuesday 17 May 2022
About the event
This webinar was co-hosted by the Melbourne School of Government, Centre for Employment Labour Relations Law, along with the Labour, Equality and Human Rights Research Group (LEAH) at Monash University.
Under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), the Commonwealth Government is required to report annually on how it is managing modern slavery risks in its own operations and supply chains. This feature of the Act is significant for its potential impact on federal government procurement processes and, through these, on business practice. However it is also a feature of modern slavery legislation that has received relatively little attention to date. This seminar will examine the Australian Government’s efforts to integrate modern slavery considerations into its public procurement framework from a labour regulation and compliance perspective. The presenters will identify two sets of regulatory challenges that arise when seeking to use public procurement to advance labour rights globally, and will engage in a preliminary assessment of the Australian Government’s modern slavery-related procurement initiatives in light of these challenges.
View the webinar recording
About the speakers
Dr Ingrid Landau is a Lecturer in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash Business School, and a member of the Labour, Equality and Human Rights (LEAH) Research Group. Her research spans the fields of labour law, comparative law, business and human rights, and regulatory theory. Ingrid's current research projects focus on corporate human rights due diligence regulation, socially responsible public procurement, and collective labour dispute regulation in Southeast Asia. She has worked as a consultant for the International Labour Organisation, and at Melbourne Law School and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
Professor John Howe is Director of the Melbourne School of Government and the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law at the University of Melbourne. John's research interests include labour market policy and regulation, regulatory design, and social procurement. He has written extensively on the role of the state in regulating employment and labour markets, and on the intersection between state-based regulation and corporate governance, including the use of labour policy objectives in procurement contracts. John was Secretary of the Australian Labour Law Association between 2005 and 2009, and Chair of the Labour Law Research Network from 2015-2019. He was Deputy Dean of the Melbourne Law School from 2013-2016.