William Isdale speaks with The University of Queensland's Cameron Murray about the nature of 'grey gifts', soft corruption, and who stands to win (and lose) when these deals are made.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Accountability
Displaying 81 - 100 of 116 articles
The move to consolidate security agencies under one minister upends generations of conventions on how security intelligence and executive police powers are managed separately.
In a free society, it ought never to be lawful for a government to detain people by executive order alone.
The amplified public concerns about executive pay that led to the cementing of reporting and disclosure into law, may start trend of voluntary disclosure among professional bodies.
For-profit corporations are deeply embedded in US national security infrastructure – and they’re not going anywhere.
The drama caused by the return of Brain Molefe into South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, signals a failure of accountability and corporate governance within the public sector.
Policing culture is often associated with a lack of transparency and a resistance to external examination.
Past presidents have made strange requests of the FBI, some of which were documented by J. Edgar Hoover.
Trump’s budget director singled out Meals on Wheels as a waste of federal dollars. But identifying bad ways to spend taxpayer money is harder than it sounds.
The key takeaway from the Bob Day case is that courts interpret the eligibility requirements for election strictly.
Politicians should be subject to a penalty regime similar to the far more stringent one that applies to company directors.
Attempts to deepen democracy in Africa by limiting presidential terms to two have not entirely quashed a culture of entitlement to rule. Glimpses of it persist, much against citizens’ wishes.
The current lack of transparency in Australian philanthropy raises ethical questions. Far from being a solely private activity, philanthropy needs greater public accountability.
Successive Australian governments have dehumanised refugees and kept Australians in the dark about what really goes on in the offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island.
The Chinese £1bn investment in Sheffield, a former mining town in northern England, comes with valuable lessons about how Africa can maximise economic value in its dealings with China.
The ‘functional immunity’ granted to UN officials made good sense when the body was founded after World War II. But as its organisational functions have expanded, so has this immunity.
Political funding in Australia is governed by different rules for state (some of which do not require disclosure) and federal governments. And both levels suffer significant weaknesses.
When we look at cases of police corruption and abuses, we must ask: who do the police really serve?
If the governing ANC ignores the calls for Zuma’s resignation,it may undermine South Africa’s leadership on the continent. It creates the idea that he can undermine the constitution with impunity.
Friday’s COAG meeting is a perfect opportunity for politicians to govern in the public interest: and that should start with reforming political donations.
Top contributors
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Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State
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Adjunct Professor, National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University
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Senior Lecturer in Law, Charles Sturt University
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Assistant Professor of Government, Smith College
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Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University
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Political Scientist, University of the Western Cape
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Associate Professor in Public Law, University of Cape Town
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Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute
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Assistant researcher, University of Sydney
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Professor of the Practice of International Development, Johns Hopkins University
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Chief executive officer, Grattan Institute
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Associate Professor, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia
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Research Director: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES) research division, and Coordinator of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), Human Sciences Research Council
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Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State University
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Visiting Fellow, Macquarie University Applied Finance Centre, Macquarie University
