Bob Debus (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—On 17 and 18 June, Australia presented a comprehensive report on our anti-bribery framework to the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, in Paris. Australia is a member of the working group, which was founded in 1994 to monitor the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.

Corruption has a negative effect on economies and seriously undermines trust in civil institutions as well as severely damaging the international trading reputation of all nations. Australia is therefore committed to playing an active role in combating bribery of public officials around the globe. Australia was responding in Paris to the working group report on Australia’s implementation of the convention, published in January 2006. The report is generally positive about Australia’s implementation with recommendations for improvement focusing on three areas:

(i)   improving public and private awareness of Australia’s foreign bribery offence;

(ii)  improving investigation and detection of foreign bribery; and

(iii) specific measures for preventing and detecting foreign bribery.

Australia’s response to these recommendations has been a government-wide project, with participation from more than 20 agencies of the government. To ensure our anticorruption systems accord with the convention and world’s best practice, Australia has brought together:

• federal, state and territory law enforcement bodies;
• agencies responsible for domestic and international criminal and tax policy;
• our international trade and development agencies; and
• those agencies who work domestically to promote the high standards of the Australian government.

Last week the OECD expressed its view that Australia’s implementation of the convention was above average for OECD nations. Obviously there is still work to be done and the government remains committed to combating foreign bribery.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Sturt to speak for two minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Pyne speaking for a period not exceeding 2 minutes.

Question agreed to.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I notice that the member for Denison comes in for all my best speeches in the House. The opposition welcomes the statement today from the Minister for Home Affairs in relation to Australia’s report on our antibribery framework to the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, in Paris. I note the work done by former ministers Johnson and Ellison from another place in the initial stages of this report’s preparation, and it is pleasing to hear that the OECD continues to commend Australia for its ‘above average’ implementation of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The OECD working group published its report on Australia’s performance when it came to this convention in January 2006. In 2006 the OECD also commended Australia for demonstrating a ‘strong commitment to combating foreign bribery’.

In response to recommendations in that report the former government had a targeted awareness campaign on the foreign bribery offence, and the Attorney-General’s Department worked to assist government and non-government organisations in raising awareness about the offence in addition to beginning the work on the report delivered in Paris last week. The occurrence of bribery and corruption of public officials is a taint on any country’s reputation. Even the appearance of bribery or corruption lowers international confidence in a country’s trading reputation and undermines domestic confidence in that country’s key institutions. It is of vital importance that Australian governments of any political persuasion continue to maintain vigilance against any such occurrence. The opposition will remain committed to supporting the government in a bipartisan fashion in this parliament’s endeavours to stop any emergence of bribery or corruption of public officials in any of our institutions. We welcome this report.