National Anti-Corruption Commissioner the Hon Paul Brereton AM RFD SC delivered this plenary intervention at the eleventh session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (COSP11) on 17 December 2025 in Doha, Qatar.
It is often said that 'Prevention is better than cure'. This is certainly true for corruption, because even the world's best investigation and enforcement processes will rarely recover the whole of what is lost through corrupt activity.
Chapter II of the UNCAC recognises the importance of preventing corruption, and the need to address vulnerabilities by strengthening the integrity of the public sector. The National Anti-Corruption Commission is Australia's corruption prevention authority under UNCAC Article 6, and I had the great honour of presenting our credentials as such to UNODC in Vienna in September 2023.
The Commission has now been in operation for almost 2 and a half years. From the outset, preventing corrupt conduct through education and engagement has been one of our two main lines of operation, alongside deterring corrupt conduct through detection, investigation and exposure. We seek to educate the public sector, officials and the public about corruption risks and vulnerabilities.
Through this we support governments, agencies and individuals to avoid deviating from the integrity track.
We approach this via three main strategies.
First, hardening - we seek to provide those who might be exposed to potentially corrupting individuals and influences - essentially, decision-makers - with the means to recognise and resist them.
Secondly, reporting - we seek to encourage individuals who may become aware of corrupt conduct to report it, and to ensure they know how to do so, and of their rights and protections.
Thirdly, culturally - through building awareness in the public sector, officials and the public about corrupt conduct and corruption risks and vulnerabilities, we seek to continue to grow a culture in which corrupt conduct is considered unacceptable and intolerable by individuals, institutions and communities.
To these three ends, in our first 2 years we have conducted over 340 engagements nationally and internationally with parliamentarians and their staffers, agency heads and senior public servants, professional associations and civil society organisations, and the community.
We have produced a number of guidance and information documents.
All corrupt conduct has its seed in a conflict of interest - between public duty and private interest. In consultation with other agencies, including the Australian Public Service Commission and Department of Finance, we produced a suite of guidance on conflict-of-interest management. The Commission's guide, Conflicts of interest and corrupt conduct , gives clear, practical advice on how to recognise, disclose, declare, monitor and manage conflicts of interest to prevent them from becoming corruption risks.
Ahead of Australia's last federal election in March 2025, the Commission published an open letter providing guidance about corruption risks and vulnerabilities in the context of elections.
We have just published a guide for Australian state-owned enterprises on corruption risks and reporting requirements and recently presented it to the OECD Asia Network on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises. This guide, for state-owned enterprise directors, officers, employees, contractors, consultants and advisors, identifies corruption risks and vulnerabilities and how to prevent them.
At present, we are finalising guidance on ethical decision-making for public officials.
Between August and September 2024, the Commission conducted the inaugural Commonwealth Integrity Survey. A total of 58,309 survey responses were collected across 171 Commonwealth public sector agencies. High-level findings included:
76% of respondents have faith in the integrity of their agency
64% considered that colleagues would be supportive of those who reported corrupt conduct
15% stated they have specific knowledge of corruption, and the majority (62%) of those respondents who had specific knowledge of corruption were aware of more than one incident (these figures are likely to be over-reported)
the most frequently nominated behaviours were nepotism and cronyism
in respect of the most recent incident of corrupt conduct of which they were aware in their agency, 64% of those who responded took some action
other than lack of evidence, major reasons for not reporting corruption were impact on the reporter's career (10%), fear of retaliation or reprisals (10%), and reprisals beyond career impact (6%); these almost certainly overlap.
The Commission is using the survey results to assess corruption risks and identify potential vulnerabilities and focus our detection and prevention efforts.
The Commission contributes to Australia's collective efforts to combat corruption in our region. In recognition of Australia's commitments under the Teieniwa Vision, the Pacific anti-corruption roadmap, the Commission delivered a tailored technical assistance program for 33 participants from 11 Pacific Island countries at the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference in Darwin in July 2024.
Next year, in September, the Commission will host APSACC in Canberra. With the theme A strategic approach to integrity - culture, systems and accountability, this will provide anti-corruption agencies, academics and practitioners - from across the federal, state and territory, public and private sectors - the opportunity to share their knowledge, experience and expertise, especially about measures to prevent corruption.
