Executive Summary:
Australia has a large global extractives presence for the size of our economy. Research from Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Australia released in 2017 showed that Australian mining, oil and gas companies had projects in 106 countries globally.1
However while Australia is a leader in terms of the size of our extractive industries, we do not lead in transparency. Australia is not yet implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global voluntary initiative that requires payment-to-government information for domestic extractive operations. We also do not have a mandatory disclosure law that would require extractives companies to publicly and annually disclose all payments made to governments on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis. PWYP Australia and ActionAid Australia are strong supporters of the introduction of a mandatory disclosure policy in Australia. Such a policy would make Australian extractive operations domestically and abroad more transparent, and the companies that operate them more accountable to citizens. This could potentially increase tax revenue in low income countries to fund public services that are essential for achieving gender equality and poverty reduction.
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