"‘I feel in our hearts, that we represent the people’: Cleaning company boss calls for modern slavery laws in New Zealand", 25 May 2025

... It is not that National politicians don’t care about worker exploitation, slavery and human trafficking.

National MP Greg Fleming has a bill being debated aimed at lifting the penalty for human trafficking, though anti-slavery campaigners say the laws it seeks to bolster are so flawed they are a practical bar to prosecutions. And Parliament recently passed a law to outlaw wage theft.

Marriott drew attention to Australia having leap-frogged New Zealand with modern slavery laws designed to force large companies to understand and report on the slavery risks in their often very long supply chains.

“Modern slavery’s really close to our heart for all our people, and bottom line is that we employ in excess of 5000 people across Australia and New Zealand,” Marriott said.

“A lot of them are minimum wage or living wage employees, in particular New Zealand. Therefore, I feel in our hearts, that we represent the people.” ...

It is not that National politicians don’t care about worker exploitation, slavery and human trafficking.

National MP Greg Fleming has a bill being debated aimed at lifting the penalty for human trafficking, though anti-slavery campaigners say the laws it seeks to bolster are so flawed they are a practical bar to prosecutions. And Parliament recently passed a law to outlaw wage theft.

Marriott drew attention to Australia having leap-frogged New Zealand with modern slavery laws designed to force large companies to understand and report on the slavery risks in their often very long supply chains.

“Modern slavery’s really close to our heart for all our people, and bottom line is that we employ in excess of 5000 people across Australia and New Zealand,” Marriott said.

“A lot of them are minimum wage or living wage employees, in particular New Zealand. Therefore, I feel in our hearts, that we represent the people.” ...

So frustrated were civil society groups in New Zealand that last year they drafted a bill to try and encourage New Zealand politicians to act, but so far they have not.

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