Improving Standards of Integrity in the Public Sector : the Qeensland Experience

In the late 1980s, an independent judicial inquiry exposed significant corruption in the Government and Police Service of the State of Queensland. This paper provides an overview of the steps which have since been taken in Queensland to address the problem of corruption and promote higher standards of public sector integrity. These initiatives include: establishment of a powerful independent body to investigate and prevent public sector corruption(the Criminal Justice Commission): the introduction of a Public Sector Ethics Act and a Whistleblowers Protection Act: the development of systems for protecting merit in the appointments and promotions process: and, most recently, the establishment of an Integrity Commissioner to advise politicians and senior bureaucrats on ethical issues. The final section of the paper assesses the effectiveness of these various initiatives and discusses the lessons which other political systems might draw from the Queensland experience.