A culture of integrity
Integrity is fundamental to maintaining public trust and confidence in government. The Queensland public sector operates within a legislative and ethical framework that promotes accountability, transparency, impartiality and the public good.
This chapter draws on a range of measures relating to integrity, ethics and accountability across the sector.
Highlights
- Perceptions of ethics and integrity vary, with senior leaders and managers having higher levels of confidence in ethical leadership, and individual contributors generally having lower levels of confidence in ethical leadership.
- Between the 2022 and 2025 Working for Queensland surveys, individual contributor perceptions of the honesty and integrity of their:
- manager or supervisor increased from 79% to 82%
- senior managers increased from 55% to 61%
- executive group increased from 46% to 52%.
- Conduct, including bullying and harassment, has declined slightly:
- respondents currently experiencing bullying has decreased from a count of 2,872 in 2024 to 2,830 in 2025
- respondents currently experiencing sexual harassment decreased from 0.35% in 2024 to 0.28% in 2025.
Principles of public sector integrity
A public sector that is accountable and operates with integrity and impartiality is a foundational requirement of our system of Government. A number of Acts set out the legislative integrity framework in which the public sector must operate, including the Public Sector Act 2022 (the Act) and the Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 (the Ethics Act).
Under the Act, the management of the public sector is guided by a number of principles including ensuring accountability, integrity and support of the public interest. The Ethics Act also sets out principles fundamental to good public administration and to which public servants must adhere:
- Integrity and impartiality
- Promoting the public good
- Commitment to the system of government
- Accountability and transparency.
The Code of conduct for the Queensland public service describes how public service employees are to conduct themselves in delivering services to the Queensland community. It guides public service employees to understand how to put the principles and values of the Ethics Act into practice.
Ethics and integrity data
Learn about ethics, integrity, and performance in the Queensland public sector, including key principles, behaviours, and data.