Ethical Consumerism
Local Focus
We can all be more conscientious about who is supplying our daily goods and services. Are the products we enjoy and the trades we engage provided by employees who are fairly paid? Are these workers receiving their entitled benefits and rights? Ask questions and create the demand for goods and services that are supplied legally and ethically.
Global Action
Globalisation has delivered many positives for Australians. We now have greater choice of products and more competitive prices. Shareholders have benefited from greater profitability as a result of lower costs of supply. These advantages may come at a great cost to workers in developing countries who do not have the legal protection of work rights that exist in Australia. Slave labour drastically reduces the cost of raw materials and manufacturing.
There is currently no requirement for businesses to publish where their raw materials are sourced from and where production occurs. Consumers are generally not provided with information that would assist them in making more ethical purchasing decisions. Without such knowledge, it is likely that Australian businesses may be profiting from the use of slave labour and consumers are unaware unknowingly supporting such practices.
There are NGOs in Australia that are working to address this lack of transparency to provide consumers with a more informed choice. The Ethical Fashion Guide 2021 recently published by Baptist World Aid Australia is a good example of this, as is the recent Slavery-Free Easter Chocolate campaign by ACRATH.
The Fair Trade movement provides an example of how developing countries benefit from fairer working conditions and improved living standards as a result of more transparent supply chains and fairer trading practices.
An increasing number of businesses are working to address the issue of slavery in their supply chains and we commend the work of Konica Minolta and Fortescue Metals Group for their efforts. These examples show that there is an appetite for businesses and consumers for ethical manufacturing processes, however, this fractured approach has had limited reach.
The Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 requires organisations with a turnover in excess of $100million to report on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains and actions to address those risks.
