The government wants businesses to do their bit to stamp out modern slavery, by reporting on anything amiss in their supply chain.
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It is planning new regulations for small, medium and large companies, to fill what experts describe as a gap in the country's legislation.
All companies would have to report any modern slavery or worker exploitation they find out about within their supply chain, whether it is here or overseas.
Medium-to-large businesses would also have to declare what they were doing to remedy modern slavery and worker exploitation - and large businesses would have to undertake due diligence, to prevent and mitigate it.
Announcing the proposed changes today in Auckland, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Wood said it was about treating people fairly.
"What it means is that people in the New Zealand supply chain have a positive obligation not to turn a blind eye to credible and serious information that is before them," he said.
World Vision head of advocacy Rebekah Armstrong explained many New Zealanders were often unaware that a lot of the country's imports were linked to modern slavery.
"We found the average Kiwi family spends about $34 a week on products associated to modern slavery. And these are products like shoes, clothes, bananas, coffee, cocoa," she said.
The announcement comes after a petition was presented to Parliament last year, signed by 37,000 people, asking the government to enact modern slavery laws like the UK and Australia have done.
According to Chapman Tripp senior associate Nicola Swan, the proposals unveiled today are even tougher than the rules other countries have introduced - and could mean a bit of paperwork for businesses.
"Requiring mandatory due diligence, as opposed to just requiring reporting on steps taken within the companies own discretion, is a fairly significant step - and one that will require those larger companies to really consider how they would go about that mandatory due diligence," she said.
"There'll be a real time cost to the businesses."
Shoppers could also notice a difference.
Rob Fyfe, who has been chairing the advisory group for the government, said the crackdown could stop some products coming into Aotearoa.
But he explained it would also give consumers more transparency about where products came from.
"The challenge for consumers is they have, today, no easy way to find out what's going on in the supply chains and the clothes we're all wearing today. So this regime will help bring this information to the fore," he said.
It is not yet clear what the penalties could be for businesses that do not do their bit, or how the government will monitor compliance.
That would be for the public to make submissions on, Wood said, before the proposals become law.
Armstrong would like to see a "really specialised department, that's separate from government, who is regulating and monitoring".
"And something like an anti-slavery commissioner should be considered," she said.
Consultation on the proposals has opened today, and submissions can be made for the next two months.
