What the Act asks of larger entities
The Act set up a national reporting rule. A reporting entity must give the government a modern slavery statement for each reporting period. The statement must be approved by the entity's board or equivalent governing body and signed by a responsible member. It is due within six months after the end of the reporting period.
The Act also lists what a statement must cover. It must identify the entity and describe its structure, operations and supply chains. It must describe the risks of modern slavery in those operations and supply chains. It must describe the actions taken to assess and address those risks, including due diligence and remediation. It must say how the entity judges whether those actions work, and how it consulted the entities it owns or controls.
The Act's idea of modern slavery is wide. It covers offences such as slavery, servitude, forced labour, debt bondage and human trafficking under the Criminal Code, and the worst forms of child labour.
Why this reaches smaller suppliers
A large entity cannot describe its supply chain risks without asking the businesses it buys from. That means a cleaner, a freight company or a printer may get a questionnaire, even if the Act does not name them. Smaller firms can also choose to report. The Act lets an entity volunteer to comply.
So the same questions flow both ways. If you buy from a supplier, you can ask what a larger customer would ask. If you sell to larger customers, you can expect to answer them.
Step one: search the public register
The Attorney-General's Department runs the Modern Slavery Statements Register at modernslaveryregister.gov.au. It is free and anyone can search it. The Act requires the government to keep this register, and it holds statements from entities reporting under the Act. The site showed more than 15,000 mandatory statements and over 1,000 voluntary ones in early 2026.
Type the supplier's name, or its parent company, into the search box. A hit tells you the supplier is covered by the Act, or chose to report. Open the statement and read the sections on risk and on actions taken. A statement that names real risks in specific products or regions is more useful than one full of general promises.
No hit is not a red flag by itself. Most businesses are below the threshold.
Step two: five plain questions for any supplier
The Act's own criteria make a good question list. Ask the supplier to answer in writing, in a few lines each.
- Where do your products or labour come from, and do you use labour hire or sub-contractors?
- Which parts of your supply chain do you think carry the highest risk of forced labour or exploitation?
- What have you done about those risks, such as a policy, staff training or supplier checks?
- If you found a problem, what would you do? Who would fix it, and how would workers be helped?
- How do you check that your actions work?
These questions mirror the Act's criteria on structure, risk, action, remediation and effectiveness. You do not need legal language. The aim is a real answer.
Step three: read the answers like a buyer
A good answer is specific. It names a product, a country or a labour type. It describes one step the supplier took and one thing it learned. A weak answer says there is no risk, or repeats a slogan.
Note any area where the supplier is unsure. Honest uncertainty is a better sign than a perfect score. Ask a follow-up, and put the date and answer in your vendor file.
Some industries need more care. The Register's Resources page links a training video on modern slavery in the cleaning industry, made for staff who buy or manage cleaning contracts. If you buy labour-heavy services, watch it.
The limit of these checks
A written answer shows that a supplier thinks about the issue. It does not prove what happens on a factory floor or a farm. The government's own review of the Act, tabled in May 2023, made 30 recommendations, including penalties for missing reporting duties and a lower threshold of $50 million. That shows the system is still being shaped.
Use these checks as a start. If you ever suspect someone is in a situation of modern slavery, the Attorney-General's Department lists free and safe support services on its website.