The breadth of the definition of “corrupt conduct” in the bill for the proposed National Anti-Corruption Commission is likely to have a profound impact on political life, particularly in those areas best described as the dark arts.

Borrowing from several state-based corruption regimes, the bill defines corrupt conduct broadly to include any conduct of a public official that constitutes or involves a breach of public trust, an abuse of a public office, and “the misuse of information or documents acquired in the person’s capacity as a public official”.