Corruption and climate change

In London last week a panel at Clifford Chance discussed the topic “Corruption and Climate Change: an opportunity for improved global governance, or the next resource curse?” They debated whether or not corruption is being neglected in the push to combat global climate change.

A similar debate is long overdue in this country, and it’s needed now.

At the 13th International Anti-corruption Conference last year a plenary session was held to discuss climate change and corruption. It noted that:

Climate change and the threat it poses to sustainable economic growth increasingly dominates and challenges the international policy agenda. Climate change goes beyond the “mere” issue of Greenhouse gas emissions and their negative effect on the environment, however, as it links major issues of development such as financing for aid and technical assistance, sustainable national development strategies and energy policies, public financial management and the delivery of basic public services, especially to the poor. Tackling the role of corruption in many of the above areas is crucial to better development outcomes, and, as a result, climate change will be an area of key concern for anti-corruption stakeholders in years to come ...

Climate change is a complex problem. The stakes in tackling it properly are clearly high, but for none more so than the beneficiaries of the existing endemic corruption. But what are the costs of corruption?

According to Transparency International the cost of corruption is four-pronged: political, economic, social, and environmental. Paragraph 4 of its Corruption faq, “What are the costs of corruption?”, is worth reading closely, using it as a checklist against recent Australian experience. See for yourself how many of those circumstances resonate with you personally!

And now read it once more bearing in mind the number of Australian politicians and "senior executive" public servants who have fallen from grace in recent years when their corruption and bribe-taking has been exposed; and the extent to which lobbyists and the business interests they represent effectively buy preferential access to politicians and preferential treatment in the decisions that affect their interests; and the number of times politicians, with hefty taxpayer funded lifetime benefits, resign one day and are appointed to well-paid positions in large corporations the next.

I don't know anyone who can't point to at least one instance of what their community sees as corrupt conduct by a local, state or federal politician that has been neither investigated nor punished.

In 2002 Dr Svetlana Winbourne of Management Systems International wrote:

... For those countries that are rich in environmental resources and whose economies are primarily based on them, resource distribution, extraction and management become fertile ground for corruption.

Does this help to explain Australia’s abysmal 2008 Environmental Performance Index ranking? Surely questions need to be asked.

Suggestions for structural change to get rid of moral hazards like these have been flung about for years, but they never amount to anything. State government independent corruption investigative commissions do a good job as far as they go, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they're hardly scratching the surface. Is it any wonder that the average Australian has little faith in their own government, and is apathetic about a political system which offers them no real choice?

Notwithstanding the perpetuation of known risk factors associated with corruption and notwithstanding what we have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, the fact is that we, the naïve and gullible public, are expected to trust that all politicians are exercising all virtues at all times. The expectation is as laughable as political assurances of honesty, transparency and integrity, and as incredible as their incessant representations about acting in our best interests.

In the face of our own experience and of the present system’s public track record, isn’t it rather odd that in the 21st century no national anti-corruption agency exists with the jurisdiction and powers to investigate claims of misconduct and corruption across the Federal Parliament or Commonwealth agencies? Why is the Commonwealth lagging so far behind? What exactly is going on at the federal level?

The Rudd Government's “Standards of Ministerial Ethics” (PDF 71KB) and the “Lobbying Code of Conduct” are a good start, but are the appropriate penalties imposed "without mercy" for ethical breaches, and does the lobbying code of conduct go anywhere near far enough? And where is anything that gives the community scope to make direct complaints that will be objectively assessed and appropriately investigated? Who do you ring if you have evidence that a Federal pollie or bureaucrat is crooked or “on the take”?

Greens Leader Bob Brown pointed out in August this year:

... The Commonwealth Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner was established in 2006, but its role is restricted to investigating and preventing corruption in the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission. A joint parliamentary committee inquiry is now being held into the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity. The terms of reference include expanding its role to other Commonwealth agencies. But the inquiry has just started and no date is specified the tabling of its report. Importantly, there is no suggestion in the terms of reference to include parliamentarians ...

Surely the existence of such an agency, with so wide a jurisdiction, can’t be anything but acceptable and desirable if the Federal politicians are one half as transparent and one half as "clean" as they say they are?

After all, our Federal Politicians would no doubt understand that on the back of allegations about the existence of a “Greenhouse Mafia”, about Australia’s involvement with the “Umbrella Group”, and about the payment of large unwarranted subsidies to various industries which seem to have preferential political access, that citizens might sleep a little easier knowing that a mechanism exists for them to voice their concerns and check the integrity and veracity of their elected representatives and the way they do business. In fact, I'm sure any honest politicians would sleep better too!

Now this is not a diatribe against corrupt politicians. It's about fighting corruption before we can deal properly with climate change, and it’s a call to identify and eliminate corruption in the many forms described by Transparency International. That process has to start at the top. Corruption is endemic in politics and business, and over time it has become systemic. I'm not alone in making this call: in 2008 the Global Corruption Report Corruption in the Water Sector stated that “... In Europe, North America and Australia, corrupt practices involving or affecting water resources and services are not uncommon ...”

This year the Global Corruption Report Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector (GCR) examined the scale of global corruption resulting from bribery, price-fixing cartels and undue influence on public policy which is costing billions and obstructing the path towards sustainable economic growth. Unfortunately for us, Australia was not included in the final report.

The problem of corruption in Australia is recognised internationally, and it's also universally recognised at an individual level within Australia, but where is the community outrage? Why are our investigative journalists not poking and prodding? Exactly when did corruption get rebadged and legitimised as lobbying? Have the press and the public become so jaded they've given up on expecting honesty and integrity from all three tiers of government, as has been suggested?

We need to address corruption and we need to start now. Unless we do that we won't be able to formulate the best available solutions to climate change, and climate change isn't waiting for any of us.