NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner Announces Strategic Plan
23 June 2023 SYDNEY – NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner, Dr James Cockayne, launched his strategic plan “Working Together for Real Freedom” at NSW Parliament House yesterday. The Commissioner also announced an inaugural advisory panel that includes Jenny Stanger, Program Manager at the Australian Catholic Anti-slavery Network (ACAN) and Luke Geary, Domus 8.7 Committee Member and Partner at Mills Oakley Lawyers. “I’m honoured to have been appointed to the Advisory Panel. The plan creates targeted opportunities for action at the local level with an approach that puts survivors at the centre,” Ms Stanger said. “ACAN education, health, finance and community organisations are important stakeholders in this New South Wales initiative which will have impact nationwide.”
It is estimated that 16,400 are experiencing modern slavery in NSW and 41,000 are experiencing modern slavery in Australia. "It might seem like a foreign concept to many, but modern slavery is all around us. It's happening right now on farms in regional NSW, in shops and construction sites in our cities – perhaps even in a house down the street,” said Commissioner Cockayne. "Everyone has a human right to be free from slavery, but right now there are thousands of people being robbed of that right here in NSW.”
The strategic plan was developed through extensive consultation with experts, stakeholders and survivors of modern slavery. More than 2,500 people contributed to the consultation process between September 2022 and May 2023. In his opening remarks, NSW Attorney General Michael Daley said, “New South Wales is the first jurisdiction in the world to have a Parliamentary Standing Committee on modern slavery. When it comes to modern slavery, we are all united, regardless of our political colours.”
Sophie Otiende, a visionary global survivor-leader and Chief Executive of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery provided a keynote address at the launch, emphasising the pivotal role of centring people with lived experience in addressing modern slavery.
Key elements of the plan include:
removing products of modern slavery from public procurement
establishing a support and referral hotline for those in modern slavery
putting modern slavery survivors at the heart of anti-slavery efforts
fostering responsible business practices in the private sector
equipping frontline workers to identify and report modern slavery
establishing an expert Advisory Panel and holding an anti-slavery forum twice a year
- ENDS -
DOWNLOAD
NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner’s Strategic Plan 2023 - 2026
