The Anticorruption reforms that ART would like to see
The risks of corruption have been increased by: the on going increase in government control of information; the ever-increasing need for funding of political campaigns; the methods employed to obtain it and the failure to enact legislation to impose controls; the commercialization of government services and projects; the development of lobbying and the inadequacies of the attempt to control the activity and make it transparent in a timely manner; and failure to either stop or control the flow of Ministers and their staff to the lobbying industry on retirement from their positions.
Combined with those factors, there is also the increased risk of corruption resulting from the impact on major vested commercial interests of the significant changes that will be needed to address the problems posed by climate change and the exhaustion of natural resources, including energy, water and phosphate.
Any system must also provide a place for people to take their concerns about the activities of statutory corporations, companies in which government agencies hold an interest and other companies which may be breaching laws put in place to give effect, for example, to international treaty obligations or engaged in other misconduct.
The Accountability Round Table calls upon those standing for election to the Federal Parliament to commit to the establishment of a comprehensive independent integrity system for the Commonwealth incorporating a general purpose Commonwealth anti-corruption agency, which includes educative, research and policy functions and which is provided with all necessary powers and is subject to parliamentary oversight