ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the Australian and UK approaches towards economic crime. The issues of fraud, bribery and corruption are considered in light of the Australian Constitution. Australia is chosen for comparison because, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) comment, it is 'a significant economy, exporter and international investor', which means that it has the propensity to be a target for economic crime. The success of Australia in weathering 'the global financial crisis far better than many other developed economies' does not, however, imply that it is unaffected by economic crime. Criminalisation of fraud in Australia reflects the constraints of operating in a fragmented constitutional system in that there is not just one piece of legislation to cover the Commonwealth, states, and territories. The interplay between the authorities in the constitutional framework means that 'fraudulent offences can be statute or common law based criminal offences in federal and state criminal jurisdictions'.
