Corruption is costly, difficult to detect and it can take years to bring the perpetrators to justice — if they face court at all. Efforts to combat it have focused on catching the corrupt, but a focus chasing individuals can be futile and see opportunities for prevention overlooked.
In Australia, perceptions of corruption have been worsening since 2012 with one estimate that it costs AUD$10 billion a year in lost government revenue.
Much of the public discussion about Australia’s new National Anti-Corruption Commission, which is about to become signed into law, has been about its scope and powers to detect and investigate bad behaviour. This is important, but corruption is notoriously hard to detect and harder still to investigate and prosecute.
