Significant Reform Signalled For Australia's Foreign Bribery Regime

On 6 December 2017, the Commonwealth Government announced its intention to significantly reform Australia's existing anti-foreign bribery regime.

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2017, now tabled in the Senate, contains a number of key reforms including:

• a corporate "failure to prevent foreign bribery" offence;
• a deferred prosecution agreement ("DPA") regime; and
• amendments to broaden the existing foreign bribery offence.

The amendments signal a deliberate shift of responsibility onto companies to prevent foreign bribery occurring and, if improper conduct is detected, to self-report and cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

The failure to prevent foreign bribery offence is modelled closely on an equivalent provision in the United Kingdom's Bribery Act and (in the exposure draft legislation) creates an "absolute liability" offence for companies whose employees, agents, contractors or subsidiaries engage