For the first time in more than a decade, Australia has moved into the top 10 of the international corruption index for transparency.
But experts warn more work is still needed to stay there.
Australia scored 77 out of 100 in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index.
It was an improvement on its previous ranking in 2023, which saw Australia with a score of 75, and ranked 14th on the index.
The index scores 180 countries and territories based on 13 independent surveys of perceptions of public sector corruption and the strengths of measures to prevent and stem corruption.
In this year’s index, Denmark remained at the top spot for the seventh year in a row while Finland and Singapore took second and third spots respectively.
But for the first time since 2012, New Zealand ranked outside the top three with a score of 83.
The not-for-profit that runs the index has highlighted in the last decade almost 50 countries have slid backwards.
During that same period, about 30 countries improved their ranking, and more than two in three countries ranked below 50 showed difficulty in stopping corruption.
Griffith University’s Professor A J Brown, who specialises in public integrity, accountability and governance reform, said countries in the OECD were going backward.
“What it’s all really showing is that good governance around the world is really under an increasing amount of pressure,”
Professor Brown said.
The best result for Australia in more than a decade
The result saw Australia move into the top 10 for the first time since 2013.
It is currently joint 10th alongside both Iceland and Ireland.
It’s an improvement in where Australia stood just in 2021 where it placed 18th.
But still below where the country sat in 2012 when it ranked 7th overall with a score of 85 out of 100.
Transparency International Australia CEO Clancy Moore said there was still room to improve for the country to become a global leader in the space.
“The increase in score is off the back of some pretty strong reforms, the National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation, strong defined bribery laws, replacing the much plagued Administrative Appeals Tribunal,” he said.
Professor Brown agreed, saying a number of the federal government initiatives have pushed Australia back into the top 10.
It meant that Australia was bucking a trend internationally with its rise in the ranking.
He explained the focus on merit-based appointments with the new Administrative Review Tribunal helped improve Australia’s ranking.
“It’s consistent with what’s happened in other countries, including the UK at the time when it had a similar program of systematic strengthening of the system,” he said.
“It did translate into higher confidence that corruption was under control in the UK, and that’s now fallen away again for the UK.”
It’s why Professor Brown has warned against complacency which has impacted other countries within the OECD such as the United Kingdom and the United States — both falling to their lowest scores to date.
“It’s just sort of the beginning of the turning of that corner because there’s plenty more that needs to be done,” he said.
“It just proves the value of having an ongoing commitment to identifying what needs to be strengthened about our ability to control corruption.
“So that government does have the resources to be dealing with the cost of living crises, and they’re not being diverted through corrupt practices.”
Whistleblower protections needed, experts say
Professor Brown said he was still concerned about a lack of protection for whistleblowers.
The appeal for greater protection comes in the wake of two recent court cases involving whistleblowers.
Ex-military lawyer David McBride pleaded guilty in November 2023 to leaking sensitive classified military information to the ABC that formed the basis of the Afghan Files.
Mr McBride said at the time, the law as it stood for whistleblowers left him with no other choice.
He was later sentenced to five years and eight months’ jail for leaking secret military documents to journalists.
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Professor Brown said the work of the next federal parliament must be to establish a whistleblower protection authority.
“So that when people do blow the whistle on and speak up about corruption, we know that they can do that, that that information will come forward and that those people will be protected and supported,” he said.
Transparency International Australia CEO Clancy Moore shared similar concerns over the lack of protection for whistleblowers in Australia.
“I’m really hopeful that, particularly on an issue like protecting whistleblowers, will see traction and parties come together to actually pass legislation to protect people that speak out against corruption under the wrongdoing,” Mr Moore said.
