Australia continues slide down International Corruption Index, perceived as 'more corrupt' (ABC Online)

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Australia has been singled out for its deteriorating position as it continues a four-year slide down the International Corruption Index. Each year Transparency International gathers assessments and surveys business people to rank 168 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. Australia ranked 13th in the latest report, dropping six positions since 2012. Figures released for 2015 show Denmark led the rankings, followed by Finland and Sweden, with New Zealand in fourth place. The incoming chairman of Transparency International's Australian subsidiary, TI Australia, Anthony Whealy QC, said lack of action by successive governments to curb public sector corruption was the reason Australia continued to slide down the rankings. "The delay in responding to these issues has now made reform critical and a commitment to ramp up efforts to tackle foreign bribery, which has particularly impacted perceptions of Australia, is now urgent," Mr Whealy said. Those perceptions are not helped by the uncovering of large scale corruption linked to Australia's most reputable institutions, including the Reserve Bank. Two firms owned by the RBA, Securency and Note Printing Australia, were charged with bribing foreign officials to win banknote contracts in 2013. The scandal continues to taunt Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens as questions are raised about what he knew about Securency's alleged corruption involving up to $17 million paid in bribes. TI Australia CEO Phil Newman has called on the Turnbull Government to deliver a stronger federal anti-corruption agency. "With Australia's worst foreign bribery offences having been committed by former or current government-owned entities - the Australian Wheat Board, Note Printing Australia and Securency Limited - there is no excuse not to have implemented all of the OECD's reform recommendations in this area by the end of the year," Mr Newman said. The inflow of illicit foreign funds into Australia's property market is also cited as a problem. Mr Whealy said unless Australia strengthened its anti-money laundering regime it would continue to fall in the corruption rankings. "The illicit flow of funds into Australia and particularly from Asia is a very significant problem and we need to have proper laws to vet it, transparency, and we need to have sanction to ensure that it doesn't happen," Mr Whealy said. "We need to have better vision and control of where money is coming from." The 2015 report found "68 per cent of countries worldwide have a serious corruption problem" and "not one single country anywhere in the world is corruption free". The report shows Greece, Senegal and the UK are among the improvers and North Korea and Somalia are at the bottom of the corruption index.

Perceptions of corruption in Australian government and public sector increase (The Guardian)

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Result puts Australia 13th globally for perceived openness, the country’s equal lowest ranking in 20-year history of Transparency International index Perceptions of corruption in the Australian government and public sector increased in 2015 for the fourth year running, surging six points since 2012 in an annual index by Transparency International. A federal anti-corruption agency, muscular anti-foreign bribery laws and political donations reform were required to help arrest the slide, senior members of the anti-corruption group said. The result put Australia in 13th place globally for perceived openness, the country’s equal lowest ranking in the 20-year history of the report. Comparable democracies such as the UK, the US and New Zealand have held steady or improved their index scores in the past four years. The annual index, which ranks 168 countries on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), is compiled from 12 surveys of transparency experts and business people. Australia’s 2015 score was 79, down from 80 last year. Denmark came in first with 91, followed by Finland (90), New Zealand (88) and the Netherlands (87). North Korea and Somalia ranked last with eight points each. Brazil suffered the biggest fall, dropping five index points amid a bribery and money-laundering scandal engulfing its state-owned oil company, Petrobras, that has drawn in some of the country’s most senior politicians. Libya, Spain and Turkey were singled out with Australia as “big decliners”, with Greece, Senegal and the UK praised for their progress. The chair of Transparency International Australia, Anthony Wheatley QC, said Australia’s score was “the result of inaction from successive governments who have failed to address weaknesses in Australia’s laws and legal processes”. Foreign bribery scandals such as those involving the Australian Wheat Board and Securency had damaged Australia’s reputation and legislation introduced into parliament in December was “long overdue”, he said. The group also called for a federal anti-corruption agency with similar powers to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption; a nationally consistent and tighter political donations disclosure regime; and safeguards against dirty money from overseas bleeding into the Australian finance or real estate industries. Wheatley said addressing weaknesses in government would also raise the bar for the private sector. The Turnbull government “seems to be taking steps that look very encouraging”, he said.

labor spend all their time in power closing down anti-corruption agencies..

even yourself howled down the last RC into corruption..  ::)

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Jan 27^th, 2016 at 8:12pm:

labor spend all their time in power closing down anti-corruption agencies.. even yourself howled down the last RC into corruption..  ::)

Wasn't that because the commissions themselves were bastions of corruption full of Freemasons on lucrative commissions clearing their corrupt brotherhood mates.

The quickest way to act against corruption is to ban Freemasonry.

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Jan 27^th, 2016 at 8:12pm:

labor spend all their time in power closing down anti-corruption agencies..

Rubbish.


President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Jan 27^th, 2016 at 8:12pm:

even yourself howled down the last RC into corruption..  ::)

There hasn't been any ... just narrowly focused inquiries that are deliberately framed to exclude almost all corruption from scrutiny.

I have said many times: we need a Federal ICAC. It is a policy of the Greens. Both major parties are opposed because they both have their own dubious dealings that they do not want investigated.

I have also posted in the past on the need to reform political donations.

I'll quote from one of the articles:

Quote:

The chair of Transparency International Australia, Anthony Wheatley QC, said Australia’s score was “the result of inaction from successive governments who have failed to address weaknesses in Australia’s laws and legal processes”. Foreign bribery scandals such as those involving the Australian Wheat Board and Securency had damaged Australia’s reputation and legislation introduced into parliament in December was “long overdue”, he said. The group also called for a federal anti-corruption agency with similar powers to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption; a nationally consistent and tighter political donations disclosure regime; and safeguards against dirty money from overseas bleeding into the Australian finance or real estate industries.

See? Transparency International Australia is also calling for a Federal ICAC and reforms to political donations.

Why aren't we seeing this? Both major parties are blocking reform. It's not a Liberal-only problem or a Labor-only problem; both major parties have problems with corruption. It doesn't matter if it's some dubious dealings with unions and Labor, or the Liberals' links to the Calabrian Mafia.

Australia growing more corrupt

well derrr .... the worst of the corrupt are in government.

Is Australia growing more corrupt, or is it just that corruption is more likely to get reported these days?

I 100% back greens on this policy