THE HON MARK DREYFUS KC MP
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
CABINET SECRETARY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
Albanese Government Tackles Foreign Bribery
The Albanese Government’s historic legislation to combat foreign bribery has passed the Parliament.
Foreign bribery is corruption and an insidious problem across the world. It harms communities, impedes economic development and undermines the rule of law.
The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Bill 2023 addresses longstanding key challenges with investigating and prosecuting cases of foreign bribery.
The new law strengthens the existing offence of foreign bribery to make it easier to prosecute offenders. It also creates a new indictable corporate offence of failing to prevent foreign bribery.
Companies will now be held directly liable for the foreign bribery activities of their employees, external contractors, agents and subsidiaries, unless the business can demonstrate that they had adequate procedures in place. This will ensure that companies can no longer choose to remain wilfully blind to misconduct by their employees and associates.
The Albanese Government is acting where the former Liberal government twice promised action and twice failed to deliver.
Key measures of this Bill are substantially the same as the Turnbull Government’s Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2017 and the Morrison Government’s Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2019.
On both occasions – across two Parliaments and over a period of five years – the previous government introduced Bills to strengthen the legal framework for prosecuting foreign bribery and on both occasions those Bills were allowed to lapse.
The Albanese Government has no tolerance for corruption of any kind – whether in the public sector or the private sector.
Once again, the Albanese Government is cleaning up the mess left behind by the former Liberal government.
Thursday, 29 February 2024
