Modern slavery: Kiwis spend $34 a week on goods linked to child and forced labour

Wednesday, 28 April 2021

Consumers are unwittingly spending more than $1700 a year on products linked to child labour or modern slavery.

The sobering statistic comes from new research by World Vision, which found more than $3 billion worth of “risky goods” are imported to New Zealand every year.

Among the most commonly imported products are clothes, toys, bananas, furniture and coffee. “They’re in our wardrobes, in our toyboxes, in our kitchens,” World Vision director Grant Bayldon said.

While the label “risky” doesn’t mean all these goods were definitely produced through forced labour, there’s a high probability they were.

* Are Kiwis buying slave-picked tinned tomatoes?

Dozens of household goods have been linked to the forced labour of Uyghur people in China.

* North Korea has 2.6 million 'modern slaves', new report estimates

It’s difficult for people to avoid buying these products because New Zealand businesses aren’t required to check their supply chains or publish any findings, the research said.

It’s what Bayldon calls a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach. It means “it’s currently almost impossible for Kiwis to have confidence that what we buy and use is slavery-free”, he said.

The links between forced or child labour and goods like clothes, shoes and electronics are fairly well known. But this research shines a light on the scale of the problem, for what Bayldon believes is the first time.

The commission’s study lends credence to the argument a lack of competition is not the only, or even the biggest factor behind high prices.

Clothes made up 40 per cent of the risky goods imported to New Zealand in 2019: $1.3b worth.

Of the 142 million risky garments imported, more than two-thirds – 95 million garments – came from China, where they are potentially implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people.

The next two biggest offenders were electronics and footwear. In 2019, more than 20 million pairs of risky shoes were imported – four for every person in New Zealand.

28042021 generic, file photo, jeans, clothes shop

In the same year, more than 500,000 toys were imported from China, potentially made by child or forced labourers. Risky toys included electric trains, jigsaw puzzles, musical instruments, scooters and stuffed animals.

The bananas you pick up with your weekly grocery shop could be the fruit of child labour. Eighty per cent of bananas sold in New Zealand come from Ecuador, where the industry uses child labour.

The figures in the report come from publicly available data on imports, matching against the United States Government’s list of goods produced by child or forced labour. A product will appear on that list if there’s evidence it’s produced by child or forced labour, coming from a country where these practices are known to happen.

The list used only goes as far as breaking things down by category, which is why specific brands or manufacturers aren’t included in the report.

“The fact that it's very difficult to get information on specific products, coming from specific suppliers into New Zealand, is really the reason that we need a modern slavery act [of Parliament],” Bayldon said.

World Vision is calling on the Government to urgently introduce such legislation, which would require businesses to understand the risks of modern slavery in their purchasing, to report on those risks and take action to address them.

In March, some of the country’s largest retailers signed an open letter calling on the Government to act, and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood said policy work had started since then.

An action plan to tackle modern slavery was released in March, which “includes exploring” legislation, he said.

“Since then, policy work has started and I’ve been speaking to officials and international experts to understand how effective a law would be in practice here in New Zealand.”

An announcement on next steps was due in the coming months, he said.

While Bayldon said that’s a positive signal, he wants bolder action from the Government.

“We're saying that right now, there are more people in modern slavery than there were at the height of the transatlantic slave trade.

“Other countries are acting. There's really no reason any more why New Zealand can't commit to this and work out the details later.”

Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada are among countries introducing legislation on modern slavery.

Bayldon said that while New Zealand has fallen behind, that came with the advantage of being able to create the gold standard of legislation by looking at what had worked overseas.