Australia's results improve in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index 

What you need to know

• Australia scored 77 out of 100 in Transparency International's recently released Corruption Perceptions Index (2024), representing an improved score from prior years, and re-entering the top 10 for the first time in almost a decade.
• Commentators have attributed the improvement to the Federal Government's integrity reforms over the last few years, including new foreign bribery and anti-money laundering laws.

What is the Corruption Perceptions Index?

Transparency International have released a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) every year since 1995.

The CPI ranks 180 countries based on their 'perceived level of public-sector corruption', according to independent experts and business people. Countries are scored between 0 to 100 (with 0 being highly corrupt and 100 being very clean) and ranked against other countries.

The CPI ranking is frequently used by both public and private sector organisations worldwide to assist in assessing bribery and corruption risks in given locations. This can help inform the level of risk associated with investing in those locations.

Australia's efforts to combat corruption – a year in review

Australia's CPI score peaked in 2012 at 85 before dropping to 73 in 2021. The latest score of 77 represents a marked improvement. Australia ranked 10th out of the 180 surveyed countries, improving its ranking from 14th in 2023. By contrast, the UK and USA, scored 71 (unchanged from 2023) and 65 (a drop of -4 from 2023) respectively, reflecting concerns about corruption trends in democratic countries.

Australia's improved score can be attributed to several key reform packages. We provide a snapshot of some of the relevant developments below, as well as potential reforms that might impact Australia's future CPI scores.

1. National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC)

The launch of the NACC in 2023 is likely to have contributed to the rise of Australia's CPI score. The NACC continues to investigate and report on serious or systemic corruption in the Commonwealth public sector.

Between 1 July 2024 and 9 February 2025, the NACC received 1,444 referrals. As at 12 February 2025, the NACC was conducting 34 preliminary investigations, 31 corruption investigations and had five matters before the courts.

2. Foreign bribery laws

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Bill 2023 was passed in February 2024 with the new laws in relation to failing to prevent foreign bribery taking effect on 8 September 2024.

Under section 70.5A of the Criminal Code, failing to prevent bribery of a foreign public official may see a company criminally liable for foreign bribery by its associates (meaning its officers, employees, agents, contractors, other service providers or other associates) unless it can show that it had 'adequate procedures' in place to prevent such activity by its associates.

The Attorney General's Department has issued guidance on what constitutes 'adequate procedures'. There are six elements identified to assist corporations in establishing 'adequate procedures':

• fostering a control environment to prevent foreign bribery;
• responsibilities of top-level management;
• risk assessment;
• communication and training;
• reporting foreign bribery; and
• monitoring and review.

You can read more about the changes in our previous articles here and here.

3. Improving Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) laws

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Bill 2024 was passed on 29 November 2024 with the new laws taking effect between 10 December 2024 and 31 March 2026.

The AML/CTF Act now extends to non-financial gatekeeper professions such as real estate agents, accountants and lawyers. This brings Australia into greater alignment with the recommendations of the Financial Action Taskforce.

You can read more about the changes in our previous articles here and here.

4. Increasing transparency of political donations

The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill 2024 passed both houses on 13 February 2025.

The Bill implements recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, including improving political donation transparency by reducing the donation disclosure threshold and establishing caps on political donations.

5. Australia's sanctions regime

As we've written previously, there remains uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of Australia's sanctions laws. Following a public inquiry, a Senate Committee has recently issued a report with recommendations for improvements to Australia's sanctions regime and its enforcement. In the meantime, there has been an uptick in sanctions-related litigation. For example, after the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade determined that ASX-listed Tiger Realm Coal's Russian operations were likely prohibited, Tiger Realm Coal unsuccessfully challenged the determination in the Federal Court of Australia. We wrote about that decision here.

6. Whistleblower consultations

In addition to the above reforms, the Federal Government received 56 submissions to its public consultation on the second stage of public sector whistleblowing reforms. Key issues raised in the consultation included whistleblower protections, simplification or redrafting of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) and support for a 'no wrong doors' approach.

The Federal Government expects to use the responses to the public consultation to inform future policy development and decisions.

How does Australia fare against the rest of the world?

This year the global average CPI score remained at 43 out or 100, with two thirds of the surveyed countries scoring below 50.

This year's top performers were Denmark (90), Finland (88), Singapore (84) and New Zealand (83). The lowest performers were South Sudan (8), Somalia (9), Venezuela (10) and Syria (12).

Since 2012, 32 countries have significantly reduced their corruption levels and 148 countries have either remained stagnant or worsened.

Bribery and climate change

Many of the countries most affected by climate change have scored the lowest in the CPI. Public sector corruption leads to an increased risk that funding for climate change initiatives, or even the political impetus to progress such initiatives, is vulnerable to being derailed. Therefore, to the extent the CPI correlates with the magnitude and frequency of actual public sector corruption, it is concerning the countries who are most affected by climate change have the lowest scores.

We've written previously about the impact corruption can have on fighting climate change.

What's next?

While recently introduced reforms such as amendments to Australia's foreign bribery laws and AML/CTF Act enhance Australia's overall reputation and promote international investor confidence, these reforms predominantly regulate private sector activity. We predict that trust in the public sector will continue to inform how Australia is perceived in indexes such as the CPI. Concerns around the NACC's handling of one of Australia's biggest public sector scandals, Robodebt, means that the NACC must demonstrate to the public that it is capable of fulfilling its mandate. Other public sector reforms, such as enhancing whistleblower protections for public servants, will be important to Australia continuing to rise in the ranks of the CPI.

With an election around the corner, it will remain to be seen how integrity reforms feature in the policy agenda of the next Government, and whether Australia will rise or fall in next year's CPI.

Authors: Rani John, Partner; James Clarke, Partner; Edward Elliott, Senior Associate; Dario Aloe, Senior Associate and Caitlin Terrey, Lawyer.