The most costly corporate mistakes in Australia.

One of the key aims of the enterprise risk management process is to help businesses identify and assess potential threats to their organisation. Some threats may be deemed relatively low risk, but others can turn into extremely costly issues. 

These costly corporate mistakes may actually be more commonplace than organisations realise. For example, there have been 84 corporate fines over $1 million issued to Australian businesses in the last five years alone. 

To spotlight which corporate threats can be the most costly to organisations, we have researched data from the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, and analysed every corporate fine issued in Australia from 2020-2024. 

The key findings from the research are:

• There have been more than 369 recorded corporate fines issued in Australia between 2020 and 2024, totalling nearly $30 billion
• BHP Group have been issued with the costliest fines, adding up to nearly $25 billion across four violations
• The most common group of corporate offences are environment related offences, which are also the most costly
• The corporate mistake most likely to land you with a fine is a workplace safety or health violation
• Companies in the financial services industry are the most regular rule breakers with 73 violations over the five year period analysed

The most common corporate offences

Our findings revealed that the most common type of corporate offences are environmental offences. There have been 124 fines in the last five years handed out by Australian authorities for environmental violations, the most common of which are water pollution violations. 34% of all recorded offences were environment related offences.

The second most common type of offences are consumer protection offences. 22% of all fines were issued for consumer protection related offences, followed by safety related offences, which account for 20% of all recorded penalties. 

Of the seven groups analysed, the least frequent were government contracting related, and competition related offences. 

The most costly corporate offences

As well as being the most common type of offences, environment related violations are also the most costly to businesses. The 124 offences cost businesses nearly $25 billion in fines. The average cost per fine for an environment related violation is $201.6 million, also the highest of the seven groups. 

The high costs for environment related offences are somewhat skewed by the $24.6 billion fine handed to BHP Group in 2024. The fine was a result of settlement to resolve litigation brought by communities destroyed by the 2015 Mariana mine-waste dam collapse that killed 19 people and polluted 400 miles of rivers.

Financial related offences had the second highest total cost accumulated in fines at $3.7 billion. Anti-money-laundering deficiencies have cost Australian businesses the most, accounting for $1.9 billion in fines. Financial related offences also have the second highest average fine at $70.3 million. 

The third most costly fines have been for consumer protection related offences. These violations have totaled over $642 million in fines, with an average cost of $8 million per fine. 

Although safety related offences are the third most common type of penalised offences, they have the second lowest accumulated fines at $33.7 million. They also have the lowest average fine per violation at $449k. 

The costliest corporate violations for Australian businesses

Digging deeper into the type of violations that are most costly to businesses, our research revealed that mining violations have been the costliest offence since the turn of the decade. As previously mentioned however, this is slightly skewed by the fine handed to BHP Group, the highest fine issued by Australian authorities during the time period analysed.

Fines for anti-money-laundering deficiencies added up to $1.9 billion, the second highest total for any individual offence. Anti-money-laundering deficiencies are issued with an average fine of $469 million. 

The most common violation was workplace safety or health violations, making up 16% of all corporate penalties. Water pollution and waste violations are the second and third most frequent violations, accounting for 12% and 10% of all violations respectively. 

The companies with the most expensive corporate fines

Protecht’s study also analysed which Australian companies had incurred the highest sum of corporate fines between 2020 and 2024, revealing that BHP Group has the unfortunate distinction of accumulating the most losses in corporate fines. The Australian multinational mining and metals corporation has been penalised four times, with all of their fines adding up to $24.5 billion. 

Westpac Banking is one of five companies to appear in the top 10 for both the most individual fines, and the highest sum of fines. Their 12 fines have cost Westpac over $1.5 billion, with an average fine of $125 million per offence.

Macquarie Group is the only company to rank in the top 5 of both lists. The Australian multinational investment banking and financial services group has been fined 15 times, with penalties resulting in over $166 million in losses, the third highest amount.

In fourth place is Qantas Airways. Australia’s largest airline has been charged with six corporate offences, costing them $121 million in fines. Although the average fine of their five lowest penalties was just $129,000, they received the fifth highest individual fine overall at $120 million. 

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has the fifth highest sum of corporate fines at $90 million. Five of the eight offences for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group have been for banking violations that resulted in fines of $10 million or more. 

Also in the 10 most heavily fined companies at sixth is Austal. The Australian-based global ship building company has been fined $76 million over five offences, primarily by its U.S. based subsidiary.

Telstra Group has the seventh highest sum of fines at $73 million. In eighth place is CSL Limited. The global biotechnology company has been fined $65 million across four violations, and has the fourth highest average fine at $16 million per offence

Rounding off the top 10 is BlueScope Steel and AGL Energy Limited. BlueScope Steel has the second lowest average fine of the top 10 companies at $4.5 million, with total losses of $58 million over 13 violations. AGL Energy Limited meanwhile has the lowest average fine at $2.2 million, with their 18 offences resulting in losses of $39 million.

The companies with the highest number of total violations from 2020-2024 are as follows:

1: Incitec Pivot - 24 violations

2: AGL Energy Limited - 18 violations

3: Cleanway Waste Management - 17 violations

4: Sydney Water Corporation - 16 violations

5: Macquarie - 15 violations

6: BlueScope Steel - 13 violations

=7: Amcor - 12 violations

=7: Westpac Banking - 12 violations

=9: CLP Group - 9 violations

=9: Whitehaven Coal - 9 violations

The industries with the most corporate fines

* Highest total cost of fines by industry

The industry that has been hit with the most expensive fines by Australian authorities is the mining and minerals sector. There have been 27 penalised violations in total, with all of the costs adding up to $25.8 billion, an average fine of just under $1 billion.

Financial services companies also get hit hard by corporate fines. 73 violations is the most of all the industries analysed. The average fine per violation for financial services organisations is $31.3 million, the third highest average fine behind the mining and minerals industry, and private equity companies.

Utilities and power generation companies, and chemicals organisations are also frequent offenders, with 57 and 38 violations respectively. 

Methodology

• Data on corporate violations has been collected via the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker
• The time period analysed was 2020 - 2024, for all violations penalised by Australian authorities (this also includes non-Australian based businesses that have been fined by Australian authorities)
• Categorisation of offence groups and types, as well as the company industry, is based on the data provided by the Violation Tracker
• For the companies with the most violations, the parent company has been primarily used which can account for multiple companies, or in the event that a parent company isn’t listed, the offending company has been used
• Data collected and is correct as of May 2025