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

Based on all of the corporate violations penalised by Australian authorities from 2020 - 2024, BHP Group has the unfortunate distinction of accumulating the most expenses in corporate fines. The natural resources company that carries out the exploration of mineral resources has been penalised 4 times, with all of their fines adding up to nearly $25 billion. 

Along with the fine for the Mariana mine-waste dam collapse, they were also fined $120 million by the Australian Taxation Office for a tax violation. 

Westpac Banking and Rio Tinto have both been fined upwards of $1 billion since the turn of the decade. Westpac Banking have been fined a total of $1.7 billion over 12 violations, including a $1.3 billion penalty for an enormous number of breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. This was the second highest fine during the time period analysed. 

Rio Tinto has been fined $1.1 billion for five different offences. The most notable was for a $1 billion settlement with the Australian Taxation Office for tax violations. 

From 2020-2024, there have been 49 fines issued for $10 million or more, 18 of which were for financial offences, and 17 for consumer protection related offences. 

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