The National Integrity Summit 2023
On 29-30 August, Transparency International Australia held its 2023 National Integrity Summit, Partnerships for Integrity: An Australia Free from Corruption, in Melbourne. Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre (CFPC) officers attended the summit and heard from government and industry professionals, journalists, academic researchers and civil society members on the state of integrity work in Australia.
Corruption erodes democratic institutions, chips away at civil and political rights, damages the economy, and diverts public funds away from the public good. According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Australia came in at 18th in 2021, our lowest ranking ever and a steep fall from 7th in 2012. A decreased score on the index is associated with a host of negative social, political and economic outcomes. Dr Andrew Leigh, the Federal Member for Fenner, estimated in his keynote speech that Australia’s fall in the CPI resulted in an approximately 0.6% loss of economic growth nationwide.
In the past year, as a result of a range of integrity-related reforms, Australia has regained 2 places in its ranking. This is an encouraging outcome and vigilance and a concerted effort will be required to maintain the positive momentum.
The launch earlier this year of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is a key component of Australia’s recent improvement on the CPI. Attendees heard from the first inaugural NACC Commissioner, the Hon Paul Brereton AM RFD SC, alongside Kylie Kilgour, deputy commissioner of Victoria’s Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC). Similarly to the IBAC’s decade of anti-corruption work in Victoria, the NACC aims to prevent, detect, and respond to corruption on a federal level.
Few driving forces are more important for shedding light on corruption and wrongdoing than whistleblowers. In the private sector, the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) enshrined whistleblower protections in law, enabling private sector professionals to create and operate their own highly successful whistleblower programs. At the federal level, the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 provides the framework for enabling and protecting whistleblowers.
The summit heard directly from industry experts and whistleblowers themselves about potential enhancements to whistleblower protections frameworks.
Experts also discussed the importance of further enhancing the Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing legal frameworks. Beyond simply siphoning funds into criminal or terrorism-related enterprises, money laundering may also provide a means of concealing the proceeds of corruption by public officials.
Australia is on a positive course to restore trust and transparency to the Commonwealth public sector. Some important milestones, such as the establishment of the NACC, have been reached which are components of a broader public sector integrity reform agenda.