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.

This report outlines the findings of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC’s) 2022 internet sweep of environmental claims. It details the key issues identified in the sweep, and provides an overview of the ACCC’s planned work relating to environmental claims and sustainability.

Corporations play a major role in Australian democracy. They lobby governments for favourable policy outcomes. They make substantial donations to political parties and sometimes run overtly political advertising campaigns. This paper reviews the federal policies of political parties to identify which policies – if any...

Enforcing good company behaviours and punishing corporate wrongdoings using laws designed to assess the intentions of individuals is fraught because corporate entities do not have minds. ‘Systems Intentionality’ seeks to offer a new, and workable, way to assess the intentions of a corporation.

Allegations of money laundering, criminal infiltration and other integrity issues have, over the last two and a half years, prompted several major public inquiries and regulator investigations into Australian casino operations. This report outlines the findings from an external review into the operation of The...

This report explores laws that ban or restrict unfair practices across Europe, United States, United Kingdom and Singapore and the lessons that Australia can learn from them. It also outlines the elements that Australia could consider when implementing an effective unfair trading prohibition.

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 paper provides insights for policy-makers and practitioners on the economic benefits of integrating responsible business conduct in public procurement supply chains. It analyses both direct and indirect economic benefits, and looks into the broader impact on businesses and individuals beyond national borders.

Amazon is widely known globally for its online retail sales and delivery, but Amazon’s profits are primarily driven by cloud computing and rely heavily on contracts with governments. This report reveals the growth and scale of Amazon’s government contracts and calls for action by governments...

This briefing highlights key details of whistleblower revelations about Facebook’s unprecedented tactical response to the development of Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code in February 2021, and the concurrent reforms that were made to the Code, all of which handed significant power to Facebook.

This report explores how the powerful fossil fuel, gambling and tobacco industries are attempting to take advantage of Australia’s weak integrity laws, thereby distorting the nation's democratic processes, to put profits ahead of society's wellbeing.

This paper asserts that Australia has inadequate corporate regulatory systems. This enables people who have been involved in corruption and other illegal activities to register companies in Australia.

This is the first study to comprehensively examine the frequency, nature and context of offending by Australian corporations. While similar studies have been conducted in other countries, particularly the United States, the extent to which Australian corporations offend—and whether they do so across multiple regulatory...

This report examines anti-protest laws passed or introduced in three American states — Louisiana, Minnesota, and West Virginia — and traces how corporate influence has spurred elected officials to attempt to use those laws to clamp down on opposition during the construction of new, controversial...

While actual job titles vary, ethics owners are tasked with 'translating public pressure into new corporate practices' by creating an ethical framework for technology workers to operate within. The authors of this report assert that understanding the work of ethics owners—and the tensions they face—is...

This paper shares success stories from the new facilitators on how their teams, in the company’s value stream, applied Building a Lean Culture with a Lean Leadership (LL) training program knowledge to their business.

The purpose of this article is to analyse financial and social responsibility information disclosed by the five main Brazilian construction companies that are being investigated in Brazil’s Operation Car Wash because of inappropriate behaviour.

This report finds that the Australian finance sector’s concentration on profits at all costs compromises the ethical integrity of workers in the industry. The report argues that while the Banking Royal Commission uncovered widespread misconduct in Australia’s banking and financial services sector, it failed to...

This study aims to analyse the relevance of and the interdependencies between financial governance assessment indicators and income efficiency with synergetic effects on sustainable development and social cohesion, offering a distinct contemplation on errors in governance and financial reporting.

This paper consolidates and critically discusses current knowledge concerning the adoption and use of electronic reverse auctions in the light of specific features of the construction industry. Findings indicate that studies are addressing five main areas, i.e., suitability of electronic reverse auction (eRA) for construction...

The technology transaction, like any other, is not immune to unethical occupational behavior. This study aims to investigate the source of occupational ethics risk during technology transaction in the Chinese construction industry.

In the construction industry, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly valued as a strategic tool for business sustainable development and for addressing ethical issues. However, understanding the concept of CSR in the construction industry, and how to practice it, is limited. This study aims to...

This CEDA survey report shows that Australians expect a broad contribution from business, focused not just on the bottom line, but social and environmental performance as well.

Risk climate (or risk culture) has become an increasingly important focus since the 2007-09 financial crisis. Despite efforts to inculcate risk climate, unethical pro-organisational behaviour (UPB) such as misconduct toward customers continues to occur. This study investigates whether four risk climate factors (avoidance, valued, proactive...

What is the value of professional associations to the good that professions do? And what do professional associations achieve that state regulation or leaving it to the market alone could not?’