Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor today welcomed Australia’s rise to eighth place in a global corruption index, confirming Australia’s reputation as one of the world’s least corrupt countries.

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2009 reports that Australia has again improved its position in the annual world corruption-free standings.

“Australia is now ranked eighth out of 180 countries, rising from ninth position in the 2008 survey,” Mr O’Connor said.

The Index ranks countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and surveys.

“This consolidates Australia’s standing as one of the ten least corrupt countries in the world, and represents a continued improvement over our position in 2007 when Australia had dropped to the 11th position in the rankings.

“Australia’s poor performance in 2007 was described by Transparency International Australia as a response to the AWB oil-for-food scandal, and it is encouraging to see our position on the index has improved consistently since the Rudd Government took office.”

Mr O’Connor noted a range of measures introduced by the Australian Government to prevent corruption and promote high ethical standards in government including:

• new codes of conduct for ministers, ministerial staff and lobbyists;
• the introduction of merit-based selection processes for most public service agency heads;
• new guidelines and procedures for government advertising;
• an inquiry into measures to protect public sector ‘whistleblowers;’ and
• reforms to Freedom of Information legislation.

“The Australian Government recognises the destructive effects that corruption has on society, and remains committed to combating corruption and its effects,” the Minister for Home Affairs said.