Tuesday, 25 February 2025 Transparency International recently released its 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the globe by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). There is good news for Australia with our overall score moving from 75 to 77 (out of 100) and our ranking increasing from 14 to 10. This improvement has been driven by a number of factors, including the introduction of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (the ‘NACC’) and replacement of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with the Administrative Review Tribunal. However, more is required to improve our ranking and further prevent corruption domestically. Australia’s ranking in the top 10 does not mean we are immune to global corruption. There is little stopping perpetrators within Australia and from other highly ranked jurisdictions from resorting to bribery and corruption when doing business abroad and in jurisdictions that do not have the capability or appetite to pursue those involved. A CPI score below 50 indicates serious levels of public sector corruption and concerningly, the 2024 CPI reveals that over two-thirds of countries score below 50 out of 100, which strongly indicates serious global corruption issues. Interestingly, Transparency International found strong links between corruption and climate change, with funds destined for initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect citizens falling victim to corruption. This underscores that corruption is truly a global problem and efforts to clean up our own backyard are simply not enough. Transparency International is advocating for several measures to address corruption in Australia, including the establishment of a Whistleblower Protection Authority to help bring corruption issues to light, a lowering of political donation thresholds, a lobbyist register and a stronger NACC. They acknowledge that recent laws to combat foreign bribery and bring real estate agents, lawyers, and accountants under the Anti - Money Laundering regime will help reduce the flow of dirty money. However further work is required, such as establishing a publicly accessible beneficial ownership register, continuous review of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (‘AML/CTF’) and foreign bribery laws and adequate resourcing of the Australian Federal Police and AUSTRAC to enforce these laws. Notably, the new reforms will reduce the ability of corrupt overseas officials from moving their dirty cash into Australian real estate. From July 2026, real estate agents will be required to understand, assess, mitigate, and manage their money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing risks. This will include undertaking customer due diligence of domestic and foreign vendors and purchasers, ascertaining whether they are politically exposed persons who are more suspectable to corruption and undertaking ongoing monitoring of them. Further, real estate agents will be required to report all physical cash transactions of $10,000 and more and any suspicious activity they pick up from dealing with vendors or purchasers. This information is crucial for the AFP, AUSTRAC and a host of other law enforcement agencies and regulators to investigate and combat organised crime, including crime relating to corruption both domestically and overseas. While Australia is making progress, the introduction of new measures is just the beginning, and eyes will be on the real estate industry on how they respond to the new AML/CTF measures. KordaMentha has assisted many businesses in combating financial crimes, including corruption, and is ready to support the real estate sector with these important requirements.