KEY POINTS:
- Australia recovers slightly in latest global corruption index.
- It had slipped to lowest point in last year's survey.
- First federal anti-corruption watchdog to come into force.
A year after recording its worst-ever result in a key international corruption ranking, Australia is showing signs of recovery.
But the message from transparency advocates is clear: don't get complacent.
Transparency International (TI) released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index on Tuesday, showing Australia still well behind its standing a decade ago, despite rising five places to 13th overall.
Graph showing Australia's corruption ranking relative to other countries.
Two months after , Australia scored 75 out of 100, a two-point improvement on its lowest-ever result a year prior.
But it remains ten points behind where it ranked in 2012, when TI adopted its current mode of measuring performance.
TI Australia chief executive Clancy Moore said the results suggested Australia may be turning a corner after a "decade of democratic backsliding", but warned "a whole of government strategy" is needed to restore its former standing.
Labor has legislated Australia's first ever federal anti-corruption watchdog. Source: AAP / AAP
"It's [grounds for] cautious optimism ... I think the risk is, after the passing of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the government can just rest on its laurels, and we don't see the changes that we need and people voted for," he said.
"Australia should be leading ... we should be back up to where we were in 2012."
The federal government has put plans to strengthen whistleblower protections before a parliamentary inquiry, the Human Rights Law Centre on Monday warning against a "piecemeal approach".
AJ Brown, Griffith University professor of public policy and law, said Labor's plan, while welcome, did not go far enough to ensure workplace sexual harassment complainants are protected.
"That must be fixed ... We also call on the government to ensure a comprehensive approach by extending whistleblower protections to parliamentary staff ... and ensuring that public servants who report corruption concerns within their agency ... are fully protected," he said.
What were the results around the world?
Somalia (12) dropped three places to last, ranking below Syria and South Sudan (13).
A report by local anti-corruption organisation Marqaati last month exposed a crisis in Somalia, saying more than $8 million in international aid could not be accounted for in 2020.
Attempts to crack down on a "handful" of low and mid-level corrupt officials were "performative at best", it said.
"There is little indication of [foreign aid] having a positive influence. Monies were stolen as usual; elections rigged as usual; political opponents harassed and attacked as usual; and democratisation unimproved as usual," the report read.
"Not only were kickbacks the norm, but some officials were also reportedly shadow owners of companies to which they awarded contracts."
Graph showing the results of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2022 by region.
Australia's region
Western Europe ranked as the globe's least corrupt region, with an average score of 66.
It was followed by the Asia Pacific (45), the Americas (43), the Middle East & North Africa (38), and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (35).
Sub-Saharan Africa ranked last, its best-performing country Seychelles scoring 70.
Graphic showing the results from Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2022 in the Asia Pacific.
It found Fiji's score of 53 offers "some hope for the future", but described crackdowns on journalistic freedoms during 2022, an election year, as a "warning sign".
Mr Moore warned corruption in the Asia Pacific posed a "direct threat" to national security, urging Australia to prioritise promoting democracy and accountability in its dealings with regional powers.
He said New Zealand, the region's best-performing country, enjoyed particularly high trust in public officials.
"It's pretty clear that Australia has had extensive numbers of political [and] corruption scandals over a decade, which has meant the people's trust in government has decreased," he said.
"The people that are being surveyed [in the index] - the experts, academics and business people - are picking up on that public sentiment ... It's really the performance of governments over that period of time that's being reflected."
