The CCC is Queensland’s anti-corruption body. We deal with corruption that affects the state’s public sector by:

• Receiving and assessing complaints
• Investigating serious and systemic corruption
• Monitoring how agencies deal with the matters we refer to them, or working with them to carry out joint investigations, and
• Providing guidance on corruption risks and prevention strategies, including through our audits.  

Our corruption jurisdiction is broad and diverse, including state government departments, the Queensland Police Service (QPS), local governments, government-owned corporations, universities, prisons, courts, tribunals and elected officials. The CCC investigates only the most serious or systemic corruption allegations itself, and refers other allegations to relevant public sector agencies for investigation. The CCC oversees many of these referred allegations.  

What is corruption?

Corruption is defined by Transparency International as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.

Common examples of the type of public sector corruption that the CCC deals with include fraud and theft, excessive use of force/assault, extortion, unauthorised access to confidential information, and favouritism.

In Queensland, “corruption” is defined in the CCC’s legislation, the Crime and Corruption Act 2001. It is made up of “corrupt conduct” and “police misconduct”.

From 1 July 2019, the Human Rights Act 2019 (the HR Act) commenced to assist in protecting the basic human rights of every person in Queensland. The Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC) was established, in part, to ensure all public entities act or make decisions in a way that is compatible with your human rights, and to receive human rights complaints.  

On 1 January 2020, a number of other provisions of the HR Act commenced, which means complaints the CCC receives about alleged corruption may also be human rights complaints involving the acts or decisions of a public entity (including their employees). Most agencies within our jurisdiction are also public entities under the HR Act, although not all corruption complaints will be human rights complaints. 

You can go to the QHRC website at: https://www.qhrc.qld.gov.au/complaints for more information about your rights under the HR Act, how to make a human rights complaint and, if you do, how it might be dealt with.

You do not need to know all of these terms or their definitions to report suspected corruption to us, but they are the terms we use to assess any complaint or report of corruption that we receive to determine whether it is within our jurisdiction – that is, whether we have authority to deal with it. 
To assist us in our prompt assessment of your complaint of corruption, we ask that you advise us in your complaint (in the summary section if you are using the online complaint lodgement form) of the following:

•    whether you consider your human rights have been breached, which rights and why (if possible); and 
•    if you have previously raised your concerns with any other agency, including the QHRC.