After years of parliamentary prevarication spanning three governments, on 29 February 2024, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Bill passed both houses of federal Parliament and will soon come into force.
As we explained in June 2023 when the bill was first tabled, the amending legislation will introduce a new “absolute liability” offence into the Commonwealth Criminal Code
for a failure to prevent bribery of foreign public officials by a company’s “associates”. That term is defined broadly to include employees, contractors, agents, subsidiaries and “a person that otherwise performs services on behalf of a corporation”.
