Anti-Corruption 2025

AUSTRALIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Tobin Meagher, David Benson, Tessa Trend and William Stefanidis, Clayton Utz

Location of Relevant Provisions Regarding Whistle-Blowing The relevant provisions governing whistle-blow - er protections are located in various pieces of legislation, most importantly: • Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act; • Part IVD of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth); • Part 2 of the PID Act; and • Part 4A of the Fair Work (Registered Organi - sations) Act 2009 (Cth). 6.5 Incentives Provided to Whistle- Blowers There are no financial rewards to incentivise whistle-blowing, as occurs in the USA. A reward system was recommended by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, though was not ultimately adopted. Despite a slowly growing number of success - ful prosecutions, Australia is still in the relatively early stages of enforcing anti-bribery laws in relation to foreign public officials. Enforcement of domestic bribery offences is more established and has been steady. 7.2 Enforcement Bodies Australia has adopted a multi-agency approach to combating corruption. At the Commonwealth level, Australia’s main criminal law enforcement agencies in bribery cases are the AFP and the CDPP. State-based investigations are generally conducted by the fraud squad of the particular state police department, with the state directors of public prosecutions conducting prosecutions. 7. Enforcement Trends 7.1 Enforcement

While allegations of corruption will generally be referred to the AFP, other agencies that may become involved in investigation processes include: • the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC); • the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC); • the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commis - sion; • the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security; and • the Office of the Commonwealth Ombuds - man. The CDPP is largely responsible for prosecuting offenders under the anti-bribery provisions of the Criminal Code. The AFP-established Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre (FAC) brings together multiple Common - wealth agencies including the AFP, ASIC and ATO, to enhance the AFP’s response to, among other things, serious and complex fraud against the Commonwealth, and corruption involving Australian government employees. A separate multi-agency taskforce specifically focuses on foreign bribery and related transnational corrup - tion issues. In recent years, ASIC has become more actively interested in potential Corporations Act contra - ventions by directors and officers involved in foreign bribery investigations. The ATO, as the Commonwealth’s principal rev - enue collection agency, also refers information on suspected or actual bribe transactions to the AFP for potential investigation and/or pros - ecution, and has established guidelines which

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