Belich CamillaCAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I just want to also acknowledge the family of the person we were discussing: Matthew Hunt. I know it's always difficult to have these things raised so I just wanted to acknowledge that.What I would like to ask the Minister about is also related to health and safety which I know has been traversed in this Estimates debate at some length already. What I specifically wanted to cover which I don't believe has been discussed yet is the work that the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment has been doing on modern slavery. This piece of work as I understand was consulted on this year with a view to looking at legislation. So I am quite interested in finding out an update on that from the Minister.Just for those who aren't clear on what modern slavery is it's a severe form of exploitation that a person cannot leave due to threats of violence or deception. It includes forced labour debts bondage forced marriage slavery and human trafficking—very very serious forms of treatment that unfortunately do still go on probably in New Zealand and also definitely in the rest of the world. We need to be especially mindful of this in relation to supply chains and also to New Zealand's reputation in relation to how we're seen to be dealing with this very very serious issue that does unfortunately still take place.I understood that it was proposed during the consultation process that there would be different requirements for medium and large businesses. So I'm quite interested to hear whether there has been any report to the Minister or an interim report or any feedback that he has on the consultation period the importance of this for New Zealand where he sees the legislation going in the future and any other feedback really on what I think we can all agree is a really important issue to be addressed.Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): In response to Camilla Belich's question the work programme around modern slavery legislation is proceeding very well. There was a consultation process which occurred earlier this year which gave New Zealanders the opportunity to comment on this issue and to provide feedback on a proposed model for managing this issue. It was a graduated model that we put forward that would have different responsibilities applying to businesses depending on their size by revenue with responsibilities increasing up to a full due diligence responsibility for businesses with a turnover of $50 million or more.The process is currently being overseen by the Modern Slavery Leadership Advisory Group chaired by Rob Fyfe including business unions academics and NGOs all around the table developing up a consensus to bring recommendations back to the Government. I expect to have their final recommendations to me within the next couple of months in order for us to determine final decisions as a Cabinet to take that piece of legislation forward. I do note that this process kicked off maybe about 18 months or so ago with a petition presentation out the front of Parliament that parliamentarians from across the House including Christopher Luxon came along to. We all gave our commitment to supporting that work going forward and as the Government progresses those proposals I hope and look forward to support around the House to make a difference in this very very important area.