Walk Free, established by the Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest in 2012 to “eliminate slavery in [Forrest’s] lifetime”, is the most prominent example. This led directly to the global slavery index (pdf), which ranks countries based on the prevalence of slavery. It is understandable that Walk Free, a new player seeking to make its mark in a highly competitive environment, has succumbed to that temptation. Even the well-informed reader will struggle to understand how the fragile sample data from 19 countries (10 from Walk Free data, nine from secondary sources) was so confidently extrapolated across to the remaining 148. The leadership of Walk Free appears to enjoy unfettered access to the global elite; securing glowing endorsements of the index from Clinton to Blair, Bono to Branson.