World Vision head of advocacy and justice Rebekah Armstrong tells The Front Page podcast as much as 92 per cent of all shoes imported into this country are considered to potentially be associated with modern slavery.
“There are nearly 50 million people in modern slavery, and 27m of them are in forced labour,” she says.
“To bring it home a little, it might look like Vietnam, where 6000 children are reported to be working in hazardous conditions to make our shoes. They’re missing school. They’re working in factories that are dangerous to their health and toxic. They’re using their little hands to thread laces into the shoes that we wear.”
While some companies are taking steps to ensure their supply lines don’t contribute to these problems, Armstrong says we have no modern slavery legislation in New Zealand.
“There was a commitment from the Labour government to draft this legislation, but we understand it hasn’t been drafted yet. And it’s something that we’re really pushing the new Government to do. We want them to introduce modern slavery legislation that includes due diligence requirements, which means that you don’t just have to disclose where your risks are, but actually address and mitigate them.”
The retail climate is evolving with the introduction of a number of international websites, promoting directly to consumers to make inroads into the local market.
And while massive New Zealand companies have the resources to send people abroad to check their own supply lines, New Zealanders shopping from these online players don’t always know where their products are coming from.
Both Temu and Shein have faced enormous scrutiny internationally for their links to modern slavery.
In the United States, Republican representative Mike Gallagher told the Washington Post “Temu is doing next to nothing to keep its supply chains free from slave labour”.
A 2022 undercover documentary produced by Channel 4 also exposed working conditions inside Shein factories and found workers were clocking up 18-hour days. Shein has defended itself against such accusations, claiming it has zero tolerance for forced labour and has a robust compliance system.
Despite this international scrutiny, the companies continue to grow rapidly and are particularly popular among younger consumers.
“It doesn’t take much to understand that there are some serious risks of harm in these supply chains,” says Armstrong.
“And that should be enough really to make you consider whether purchasing something from these particular brands is a good decision for you.”
Armstrong says that having modern slavery legislation would at the very least ensure that companies do have to disclose the risks of modern slavery in their supply chains.
“Some New Zealand companies are doing this because they are trading internationally, and this is becoming the norm overseas. A lot of OECD countries, countries in the EU, the UK and Australia, have these types of laws in place. And it’s now becoming a prerequisite when you’re trading with these countries.”
So, how can Kiwis ensure they’re not purchasing items linked to modern slavery? And what’s the likelihood of the incoming Government actually doing something about this gap in our law?
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page to hear more about this dark world.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
