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Anti Corruption
Oil, gas and mining companies should act with integrity and honesty so that we all benefit from the extraction of our natural resources. Corruption from some powerful companies and governments overseas means less money for schools, hospitals and to respond to climate related disasters.
What We Do
The oil, gas and mining sectors are known as the world’s most corrupt economic sector. Powerful companies not paying tax, handing over bribes and hiding profits means less money for schools, hospitals and responding to climate related disasters.
PWYP calls for tax justice so revenues from extraction can be used to boost development, via measures such as companies publishing their payments to individual country governments and registers of beneficial owners. With our members and partners, we work to ensure that EITI reports provide detailed information on fiscal regimes and tax payments by extractive companies, so the data can be reconciled with other sources – such as alternative reports, journalist investigations and supreme audit institutions – to provide real fiscal transparency.
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Connecting Our Members & Movements
With more than 700 members in over 50 countries, PWYP’s strength comes from our ability to coordinate action nationally and globally. We share our diverse experiences and work together across borders to maximise our collective impact.
What We Do
PWYP Australia helps members in Australia and in our region work together effectively over issues that span multiple countries – such as tax evasion or the environmental impacts of extractive projects. This is critical, as the extractive sector within most countries has a significant international dimension. By working together, we strengthen our collective impact and effectiveness to advocate for the changes we want. Our global connections help us be flexible as we navigate the politically complex and unpredictable path towards an open, responsive and accountable extractive sector.
Publish What You Pay Australia
This means that large reserves of oil, gas and coal could become “stranded assets” that cannot be burned and therefore cannot be extracted. Large fossil fuel projects could increasingly become uneconomic to operate, leading to dwindling government revenues and development benefits in fossil fuel-rich countries.
To fulfil our mission to make natural resources benefit all citizens, PWYP is addressing new issues – such as calling for disclosure by companies of their climate-related financial risks, stop tax payer funds going to fossil fuel project and the use of financial modelling to help inform decisions over whether fossil fuel extraction should take place at all in a particular context.
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Advancing Women's Rights
Women suffer disproportionately from the social and environmental effects of extraction, yet are often excluded from decision making processes.
What We Do
Women are commonly excluded from consultations, while lack of access to information or security of tenure make them vulnerable to eviction or loss of livelihoods. Seemingly distant decisions such as government tax breaks to attract investment can undermine services most used by women, such as healthcare, sanitation and water supplies.
PWYP works with ActionAid and others to ensure women’s voices are heard, and that they benefit equally from extraction. We campaign for women’s inclusion in decision making, from community to international levels, including through the EITI Through capacity-building and campaigning, PWYP supports countless women activists fighting for transparency to improve the lives of their families and communities.
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Civil Society Participation
From remote communities to national bodies, everyone has a right to participate in decisions that affect them – and it’s vital that they do if they are to benefit from natural resource extraction.
What We Do
From remote aboriginal communities, women’s rights organisation to national bodies, everyone has a right to participate in decisions that affect them – and it’s vital that they do if they are to benefit from natural resource extraction.
PWYP promotes people’s participation throughout the entire process, so governments and companies can’t ignore the call for fair extraction. Our members help create spaces for people to take part in decision making, and inspire them to do so – including women, young people and marginalised groups such as indigenous peoples. We train local organisations to use data, share knowledge about extractive projects with communities and the media, and collect people’s feedback. Ultimately, governments and companies can’t ignore the call for fair extraction when it’s backed by the power of ordinary people.
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Contract Transparency
Contracts signed between governments and extractive companies determine how much a resource is sold for and how it will be extracted – with far-reaching effects for a country’s economy and its people.
What We Do
When extractive contracts are secret, people can miss out on opportunities for natural resources to drive development. Between 2010 and 2012, for example, DRC’s government secretly sold mining concessions below their market value, depriving the country’s people of US$1.36 billion that could have funded healthcare or education. Contracts negotiated behind closed doors also fuel suspicion and can be manipulated by politicians.
PWYP works for open, competitive bidding processes in which contracts between governments and companies are made publicly accessible. This gives ordinary people the power to ensure that the best deals which most benefit development are reached.
Thanks to PWYP members globally, contract transparency is becoming a global norm in the extractive sector. More and more contracts are now publicly available, allowing civil society to examine their terms. Whether through national laws or the EITI, the publication of extractive contracts is reducing the likelihood of suspicious transactions and helping ensure that public debate takes place on what the best extraction deals look like.
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Environmental & Social Impact
How much water is a mining project consuming? Have people lost their land? Has a company paid the correct fees for environmental mitigation plans? Understanding the effects of extraction goes far beyond financial flows.
What We Do
People need the right information on the environmental and social impacts so they can make informed decisions about projects in their area and hold companies and governments accountable.
PWYP’s advocacy with our members in countries like PNG, South Africa, Myanmar and Indonesia highlights the importance of the social and environmental effects of extraction, calling for full information on these impacts to be made publicly available for all extractive projects. As a result, the effects of extractive projects on communities and ecosystems are now included in many EITI reports. PWYP strives to ensure that social and environmental costs are incorporated into all conversations about natural resource use, so people can make informed decisions about projects and hold companies and governments accountable for fair and sustainable extraction.
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Revenue Transparency
PWYP was founded to campaign for oil, gas and mining companies to publish their payments to governments (such as licence fees, royalties and taxes), and for governments to be transparent about the revenues they receive.
What We Do
PWYP was founded to campaign for oil, gas and mining companies to publish their payments to governments (such as licence fees, royalties and taxes), and for governments to be transparent about the revenues they receive. We are calling on the Australia government to sign up to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – the gold standard of natural resource governance – and make laws so that ASX companies publish their payments to governments (mandatory disclosure) where they extract oil, gas and minerals.
In 2018 alone, mandatory disclosure laws in Canada, the EU and Norway resulted in almost 8000 publicly available “payments to governments” being listed. Citizens can now tell if they are getting a good deal out of their countries natural resources.
With greater transparency, civil society can scrutinise transactions, question suspicious payments and judge whether extraction projects benefit communities where Australian companies operate.
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