Extractive industries transparency

In 2016, Australia pledged to implement the EITI.¹ Five years after this commitment was made, it has not yet done so. The multi-stakeholder group, which comprises government, industry and civil society stakeholders, was established in November 2016 but has not met since 2019. Establishing a multi-stakeholder group, along with the government issuing a public statement of its intention to implement the EITI and appointing a senior official to lead the implementation, are key first steps in implementation. Critically, regular disclosure of extractive industry data consistent with the EITI standard has not occurred.

Recent correspondence from the relevant minister to Publish What You Pay Australia states that Australia’s decision to join the EITI was based on the 2013 EITI standard.² The standard has subsequently been revised to require disclosure of more information – including beneficial ownership, contracts and environmental information – than the initial focus on revenue payments to government and which “may pose some challenges in Australia”, the minister said, although what these challenges are was not elaborated on in the minister’s letter to Publish What You Pay Australia.

The minister also stated that, until the government’s review of the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code (a set of principles and minimum standards to guide businesses on the public disclosure of tax information) is complete, it would be premature to reconvene the EITI multi-stakeholder group.² The review of the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code commenced in 2018,³ and the Board of Taxation published its review of the Tax Transparency Code in February 2019,⁴ although no action has been taken since then. Establishing a multi-stakeholder group is a key step in EITI implementation and is something for which civil society groups in particular have been advocating.