An Analysis of Corruption in Australia: Forms, Causes, and Solutions

This essay delves into the pervasive issue of corruption within Australia, examining its various forms across different governmental and societal sectors. It highlights the erosion of democratic institutions and the impact on public trust, citing examples of political, bureaucratic, and judicial corruption. The essay discusses the detrimental effects of corruption on the country's global standing and the failure of governmental measures to curb it. Furthermore, it explores potential strategies and solutions for minimizing corruption, including the implementation of codes of conduct, public awareness campaigns, and increased transparency in government spending. The analysis covers the causes, manifestations, and consequences of corruption, providing a comprehensive overview of the challenges and potential remedies within the Australian context.

Running head: CORRUPTION IN AUSTRALIA
Corruption in Australia
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Corruption refers to form of the dishonesty or the criminal activity that is undertaken
by an individual for acquiring the illicit benefit. Corruption can be inclusive of various kinds
of the activities that includes bribery along with the embezzlement. Corruption can be
ranging from the small favours that exists in between small group of the people to corruption
that has an effect on the government on the large scale. Corruption prevails in everyday
structure within the society. Corruption and that of crime can be stated to be endemic
sociological occurrence that appears in all the countries in the global scale. Corruption
includes the cases of acceptance of bribes, manipulation of elections, laundering of money
along with the defrauding of the investors that can have an effect on the state of a country.
This essay talks about the unethical behaviour of corruption within the country of Australia.
This essay throws light on the various forms of corruption that exists in Australia. The essay
also discusses about the strategies that can be implemented by the government that can help
in minimising the aspect of the corruption.
Australia has not been able to improve on the record of low ranking pertaining to the
global measure of the government corruption. The integrity along with the transparency
system within Australia have faced a large amount of criticism on account of its weakness.
The donations are not revealed within the real time and there are failures in relation to the
transparency within Australia. The people in Australia do not get the punishment for the
breaching of the federal lobbying rules along with freedom pertaining to the information
regime is neglected by the delays along with the record rates of the refusals
(Theconversation.com 2019). Corruption erodes the element of the democracy within
Australia that helps in producing a vicious cycle. The corruption in Australia is responsible
for undermining the democratic institutions and it gives rise to weak institutions within the
framework of Australia. The democratic institutions are under threat in the world owing to
the existence of the leaders having the authoritarian tendencies (Theguardian.com 2019).

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Australia has slipped within global corruption index and the measures of the Federal
government of Australia in cracking down on the aspect of the bribery along with diversion
of public funds have failed in the recent times. On the basis of the corruption perception
study of 180 countries, it was found that Australia is 13th least corrupt nation that is ahead of
the Hong Kong. The corruption score in Australia has slipped eight points in last six years.
The trend can be stated to be “notable decrease” when compared to the various other
countries across the world. Australia is gradually becoming more corrupt as federal
governments are failing to create the anti-corruption body that can help in handling the aspect
of corruption in the country (Transparency.org 2019). The corruption has flourished owing
to the lack of the anti-corruption agency. It has been found that within NSW, Queensland
along with Victoria there have been incidents of the corruption that has been found by the
royal commissions. A survey that was carried out by Victorian Independent Broad-based
Anti-corruption Commission ( IBAC) has brought out the fact that 40 percent of the suppliers
to that of the government agencies believe in the fact that corruption in public sector
procurement have evolved to become a crucial problem (Sydney.edu.au 2019).
The corruption taking place within the states would be replicated federally and this
would make the process of procurement in states a problem. It was found that in the year
2009, Defence Department asked for tenders that was worth more than that of $ 45 billion.
The money of this kind of magnitude would inevitably pave the path for corruption in the
country. A survey that was brought out by the Griffith University brought out the fact that the
trust of the Australians in the government was receding in the present age. The trust along
with the confidence within the government has fallen in last year to that of 46 % at federal
along with state level (Smh.com.au 2019). There exists the public perception in Australia
that the small elite is getting a large amount of benefit within the Australian society in
relation to the political influence. There are a large number of politicians along with the

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senior government official who are leaving public sector so that they can become the well-
paid lobbyists. The political parties in Australia accept a large amount of dollars in terms of
the donations from the various kinds of lobbyists (Perry 2017). This helps in revealing the
fact that the political system existing in Australia is rigged that does not offer help to the
people on the streets.
There are different forms of corruption that is prevalent within Australia. There is
corruption in the executive, legislative, judiciary along with the local government that has an
effect on the living condition of the people in Australia. On the basis of the institutional
location, it can be stated that there exists corruption in the “upper” level along with “lower”
level. The corruption that prevails in the upper level involves the presidents, the members of
legislature along with the ministers (Iyer and Samociuk 2016). Political corruption is
common in Australia that is indicative of corruption that occurs in policymaking stage.
Bureaucratic corruption violates the first order norms whereas on the other hand the political
corruption is committed by the policymakers (Tucker and Larsen 2016).
There is corruption in relation to judiciary within Australia. The corruption that
prevails in the judiciary system gives rise to delayed justice, selective justice, voluntary
harassment along with the scope for the misuse. It has been found that the victim undergoes
suffering on account of the delay taking place in the arena of the justice. The corruption also
takes place in the arena of the business that has become a long standing problem of the
people of the present age. The business people take recourse to the corrupt practices so that it
can help in the generation of more income (Yap 2017). The businesspeople force the
government of enacting the laws so that it would favour the business. There is also corruption
in the government that is evident in the fact that the government of Australia make the scams
and award the contracts to the friends. Media can track the corruption in the government and
they can make the public aware about it. There also exists corruption in the law enforcement

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along with the system of the education that affects the people of Australia. There is
corruption within the police departments and it has been found that the police authorities of
Australia accept the bribes. There is also corruption within the health care system of
Australia. Corruption can be said to be the antithesis of that of patient centred care. There are
people in the healthcare sector who are driven by greed that makes the people in power divert
the crucial resources from the patients who are needing it. This results into poor quality of the
care that is instrumental in worsening the health outcome of the people in Australia.
There can be various forms of the corruption which includes the acceptance of the
money, violation of the procedures for the advancing of the personal interests, pay-offs in
relation to the legislative support, intervening in the process of justice, diversifying the public
resources for that of the private use, nepotism, theft along with the overpricing (Masters and
Graycar 2016). The corruption taking place in a country can be sponsored by the foreign
government or it can also be institutionalized. In the event of foreign sponsored corruption
primary actors are the public officials along with the politicians. The bureaucratic elites along
with the politicians are responsible in Australia in relation to the political scandal. The
corruption can be said to be institutionalized on account of support which is provided by the
bureaucratic elites along with the politicians in Australia.
There are prevailing strategies that can be implemented in Australia for the reduction
of corruption. The public officials in Australia should behave in an appropriate manner that
can help in minimising the incidence of corruption taking place in Australia. The public
officials should be held accountable in relation to their actions that can play a crucial role in
bringing down the rate of the corruption within Australia (Theconversation.com 2019). The
government of Australia should have the own code of the conduct that can help in dealing
with the issue of the corruption within Australia. The approach of Australia should be to
promote the ethical conduct instead of legislated detailed rules in relation to the compliance.

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The government of Australia should conduct the enquiries that can be instrumental in
reducing the corruption within Australia. There should be strong legislative regime within
Australia that should criminalise the corrupt behaviour within the country. Public awareness
campaigns should be arranged in Australia that can be helpful in dealing with the corruption
within Australia. Leaflets can be distributed in the government that can help in reduction of
corruption taking place in Australia (Transparency.org 2019). There should be transparency
in relation to the government spending that can prove to be useful for dealing with corruption
in Australia. The activities of the government should be scrutinized that can help in reduction
of the level of the corruption that is taking place in Australia. The international conventions
should be established that can help in dealing with the corruption within Australia. Global
framework should be established in Australia that can help in dealing successfully with the
issues of the foreign corruption, anti-money laundering along with the events of the extortion.
Corruption is indicative of dishonesty that is taken recourse to by a person for getting
illicit benefit. Corruption can be inclusive of different type of the activity which includes
bribery and that of embezzlement. People within Australia are not punished for breaching of
that of federal lobbying rules that increases the cases of the corruption in Australia.
Corruption destroys element of democracy that gives rise to a vicious cycle within Australia.
Corruption has increased in the country on account of the dearth of anti-corruption agencies
in country. There are various places in Australia like NSW and Victoria that faces incidents
of corruption. Public officials within Australia can behave in appropriate manner that can be
instrumental in reducing corruption in the country. Public officials should be made
accountable for their actions that can reduce rate of corruption in the country. There should
be scrutiny of activities of government that can reduce corruption in the place.

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Masters, A.B. and Graycar, A., 2016. Making corruption disappear in local
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Perry, P.J., 2017. Political corruption in Australia: A very wicked place?. Routledge.
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