Australia’s foreign bribery laws will be tightened to ensure agencies are better able to investigate and prosecute perpetrators.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said foreign bribery was a serious and insidious problem for countries across the world but Australia’s existing measures to combat it were “grossly inadequate”.
“At a local level, it can harm communities by increasing the costs and reducing the quality of vital public goods and services for citizens, skewing competition and mis-allocating precious resources,” he told parliament on Thursday.
“At a macro level, it impedes economic development, corrodes good governance and undermines the rule of law.”
Under existing law, prosecutors need to prove both the bribe and the business advantage sought were not legitimate.
But this can present challenges when bribes are concealed as legitimate payments.
Mr Dreyfus said the proposed amendment would replace this requirement with the concept of “improperly influencing” a foreign public official to better reflect the type of activity involved in foreign bribery.
It’s the third time such a proposal will be considered by parliament, as bills introduced by the former coalition government lapsed twice.
The attorney-general said the former government’s proposed amendment would have allowed companies that engaged in serious corporate crime, including foreign bribery, to negotiate a fine and have their cases put on indefinite hold.
The Albanese government’s proposal will amend the definition of foreign public official to also include candidates for public office.
It will also broaden the scope of the law to capture bribery which enables a personal advantage, not a business advantage.
“The … bill enhances Australia’s response to foreign bribery and supports our obligations under the OECD anti-bribery convention,” Mr Dreyfus said.
“(It) demonstrates the government’s commitment to combating foreign bribery and ensuring our laws are effective in detecting, investigating and prosecuting foreign bribery.”
– AAP
