This report provides insights for companies and superannuation trustees when designing programs or frameworks to manage whistleblowing in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001. The good practices identified are scalable and include examples of how executives and directors oversee whistleblower programs.

Drawing on insights from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan and Kyrgyzstan, this report connects the global decline of democracies to digital disruption and calls for strengthened regulatory frameworks along with its enforcement to prevent monied interests and hidden actors from influencing the outcome of democratic elections.

Online disclosures can play a key role in informing consumer decisions. However, cognitive limitations, such as information overload, as well as technical ones, such as small screen sizes on mobile devices, may limit their effectiveness. This report supports consumer authorities in enhancing disclosure effectiveness by...

This paper argues that the 'exceptional circumstances' test in the Commonwealth’s National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill 2022 is unhelpful, vague and counterproductive. The test will impede the ability of the National Anti-Corruption Commission to uncover corruption and misconduct.

Transparency is a prerequisite to enabling evidence-informed decision-making. In this study, the authors apply a transparency framework to assess the transparency of evidence usage in provincial policies issued by the governments of Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and compare transparency in policy-making across the Canadian...

At a general level, public confidence in the Australian courts is high, and the Australian judiciary is highly respected internationally for its integrity and impartiality. This inquiry was set against the background of the importance of maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice for...

Many federal and state government boards, tribunals and agencies are stacked with people who have worked in politics – almost always for the party that was in government when they got the job. This report argues that Australian politics has a growing ‘jobs for mates’...

This policy brief provides an update on key legislative and policy developments framing trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI). It sketches possible approaches for the certification, verification and validation of AI embedded in products and in services, and looks at recent proposals regarding the creation of a...

This study finds there has been a sharp rise in the proportion of political appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) during the Abbott/Turnbull/ Morrison administrations.

Policy-making is a complex and nuanced process, where policy actors must make sense of constantly evolving information in order to deliver policies that best serve the needs of the people. In this study, the authors apply a framework to assess the transparency of evidence use...

This report contains a summary of the non-standard audit reports issued by the Office of the Auditor-General in 2021.

The document explores how well New Zealand’s public accountability system is working in practice.

Regulation of political lobbying is a significant corruption challenge for governments, according to this article, but if done successfully can enhance political equality and improve fairness of government policy-making by increasing transparency in the disclosure of lobbying activities.

While transparency in government decision-making takes many forms, when it comes to the transparent use of evidence in policy, there currently exists a knowledge gap. This document outlines a framework for assessing how evidence informs policy. Originally developed in the United Kingdom, the framework was...

This paper highlights the ramifications of corruption in Mega-Sport Event (MSE) infrastructure, a reoccurring issue in MSE history resulting in poor quality and inflated constructions. Issues are assessed across major events, finding concerns in project planning and ineffective channels to report wrongdoing.

Budgets are a key part of Australia’s democratic system, with budget papers giving the public a valuable opportunity to see how much money is spent and on what. In this paper, Rod Campbell argues that while there may be circumstances where non-publication of budget information...

This report presents TEQSA’s summative evaluation of the sector’s responses against the Higher Education Standards Panel’s recommendations to achieve greater transparency in the admissions information for higher education.

This report examines the context and state of sustainability reporting in the large-scale mining sector, with a specific focus on what governments have done to enhance the transparency of the sector.

The objective of this audit was to examine the effectiveness of the Australian Electoral Commission’s management of financial disclosures required under Part XX of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, including the extent to which the AEC is achieving accurate and complete financial disclosures.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses talent-recruitment programs to gain technology from abroad through illegal or non-transparent means. This report focuses on overseas talent-recruitment operations—how the CCP goes abroad to hunt or lure 'phoenixes.'

This policy brief provides an overview of the National COVID-19 Commission Advisory Board (NCC), as well as specific problems entailed by its appointment process, composition, lack of transparency and lack of legislative underpinning.

Starting with the basics on collaboration, this paper describes the development of a tool called "Collaboration Barometer", which can be used to measure the degree of collaboration between the participants in a construction project and shows how the results are processed and what benefits are...

Key themes that emerge from this study for a successful lean construction journey are; effort to stabilise the environment, knowledge creation and management, transparency in the process to enable simplicity and shared understanding, and building trust for further growth.

This report presents the results of a survey completed with a nationally representative sample of New Zealanders in order to establish their opinions and experiences of unequal pay and pay transparency in Aotearoa New Zealand.

To meet climate-change mitigation needs, one must go beyond operational energy consumption and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of buildings and address their full life cycle. Considering global GHG reduction targets, the results of this study emphasise the urgent need to reduce GHG emissions of...