Australia has gained places on an international corruption index, moving into the top 10 for the first time in nearly a decade but there's still room for improvement.
It ranked 10th on Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index with a score of 77 out of 100.
While it had clawed back from the low of 73 in 2021, when it placed 18th, there was still room to improve to get back to the high of 85 in 2012 and become a global leader in the space, Transparency International Australia CEO Clancy Moore said.
"The increase in score is off the back of, you know, some pretty strong reforms, National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation, strong defined bribery laws, replacing the much plagued Administrative Appeals Tribunal," he told AAP.
"But there's more to be done."
He pointed to political donation reforms that don't disadvantage minority parties or independents, stronger whistleblower protections and reforming lobbying including a code with teeth and a cooling-off period before politicians can lobby.
A surge in misinformation and disinformation and $70 million in donations that flowed to major parties with no transparency about where it came from also contributed to democratic risks, he said.
"I'm really hopeful that, particularly on an issue like protecting whistleblowers, will see traction and parties come together to actually pass legislation to protect people that speak out against corruption under the wrongdoing," Mr Moore said.
The index scores 180 countries and territories based on 13 independent surveys of perceptions of public sector corruption and the strengths of measures to prevent and stem corruption.
Almost 50 countries have slid backwards in the past decade compared to just over 30 increasing and more than two in three countries ranking below 50 showed the difficulty in stymieing corruption, Mr Moore said.
On the same day as the index's release, transparency advocates, experts and researchers held a roundtable at Parliament House to determine how to improve oversight and accountability in the public sector.
Trust was the cornerstone of democracy and a breakdown of this could have "anti-social and anti-democratic effects", especially when special interests were strengthened against the public's interests, the Australia Institute said.
The roundtable determined integrity agencies like ombudsmen and the anti-corruption commission needed to be truly independent and have guaranteed resources and budgets to shield them from political interference.
"It's about making public servants, much more likely to serve the public," former Commonwealth ombudsman Allan Asher said.
"The agencies responsible for government oversight have suffered a decade of neglect, leading to a deficit of integrity and a parliament constrained in its ability to hold the executive to account."
Independent senator David Pocock, who opened the roundtable, said integrity reforms were essential to restore public trust in democracy.
"Ensuring that decision-making is transparent, accountable, and guided by the public interest, not private influence," he told AAP after the roundtable.
"Access to independent experts strengthens the work of parliamentarians by grounding policy in evidence and best practice, rather than ideology or short-term politics."
