The Global Corruption Barometer Survey Results

20 August 2018

The Global Corruption Barometer is a tool developed by Transparency International for checking how the public perceives public sector corruption. Whereas the Corruption Perceptions Index crunches the data on how expert analysts perceive corruption, the Barometer looks at how everyday people perceive it.

In 2018 Transparency International Australia partnered with Griffith University to check the public’s pulse when it came to their feelings about corruption at the local, state and federal levels of government.

We found Australians’ trust in government has continued to slide, driven particularly by growing concerns about corruption at the federal level.

Combined with Griffith University’s Australian Constitutional Values Survey, the in-person telephone poll of 2,218 adults, conducted in May-June, provides the first measure since 2012 of the growing impact of corruption on citizens’ trust and confidence in government. The survey shows:

Trust & confidence in all levels of government fell in the last year, to 46% for federal and state levels and 51% for local government nationally
Continued low levels of experienced bribery (less than 2%), but high concerns about officials or politicians using their position to benefit themselves or family (62%) or favouring businesses and individuals in return for political donations or support (56%)
A 9 point increase since 2016 in perceptions that federal members of parliament are corrupt (85% at least ‘some’ corrupt, 18% ‘most/all’ corrupt) – placing them on par with state parliamentarians and worse than local officials.

Project leader Professor A J Brown, of Griffith University’s Centre for Governance & Public Policy, said the results provide both a warning and an opportunity for Australian governments.

“We now see a stronger correlation between trust and action against corruption.”

“Well over a third of citizens’ total trust and confidence is now explained by whether they feel the government is doing a ‘good job in fighting corruption’ (37% at the federal level, 25% state).

“Continued slippage in the perceived integrity of federal officials clearly has a disproportionate effect on overall trust and confidence, nationwide.”

Support for a federal anti-corruption agency

The survey also asked people’s opinions into the creation of a federal-level anti-corruption agency.

The results also show strong support for creation of a new federal anti-corruption body, with two-thirds (67%) supporting the idea, especially in Victoria, NSW and South Australia – with those ‘strongly supporting’ the idea outstripping those who strongly oppose it by 4 to 1.

Two-thirds of Australians (67%) support the initiative, with most of these (43%) expressing strong support, against only 10% expressing strong opposition.

Support is slightly higher among women (70%) than men (65%), and among citizens of Victoria (73%), NSW (69%) and South Australia (68%), and lower among those over the age of 65 (60%) but otherwise spread broadly across the community including all education levels.

Government bureaucrats the biggest supporters of a anti-corruption agency

Among the 1,011 respondents who had worked in government, the 245 respondents who had ever worked in the federal government recorded the highest level of strong support for a new federal agency – 54% against the national average of 42%.

The same group were marginally less likely than other respondents to rate corruption in government as a big or very big problem (50% against the national average of 57%), but were:

the least likely to say that the “task of fighting corruption” was currently being handled well at the federal level (35% against the national average of 48%)
more likely than other respondents to have witnessed or suspected an official or politician of making a decision in favour of a business or individual who gave them political donations or support in the last 12 months (68% against national average of 56%)

Undue influence a major concern

Serena Lillywhite, CEO of Transparency International Australia, said the results “firmly show that the risk of undue influence and decisions that benefit business and powerful individuals is real, and driving increasing corruption concerns”.

“For 56% of respondents – equating to over 10.2 million Australians – to say they had personally witnessed or suspected favouritism by a politician or official in exchange for donations or support is nothing less than shocking.”

“This snapshot also shows the case for a strong, comprehensive federal anti-corruption agency is well understood by those within government, not just based on the fears of outsiders.”

“Improved transparency and strengthened oversight of government decision making, including the regulation of lobbyists, is also long overdue.”

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