95bFM New Zealand continues to slip in Corruption Perceptions Index
11 March, 2026
Interview by Caeden Tipler, adapted by Gabriel Timpson-Neill
Dr. Matt Raskovic says that while New Zealand retained a high ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index, it dropped from 91 in 2015 to 81 in 2025. He says this came amidst many other high-ranking countries on the CPI also falling down the list, which could be seen as a global failure to safeguard against corruption.
Transparency International recently published its yearly Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks the world’s countries based on their perceived level of corruption. New Zealand retained its fourth-place ranking with a score of 81 out of 100, which is lower than its score last year of 83, and much lower than its score a decade ago of 91.
This slip came amidst a global slump in the rankings, with other high-ranking countries like Canada, Sweden, and especially the United States seeing their standings reduced to a similar level as New Zealand’s.
Dr. Matt Raskovic, a Professor in International Business at Auckland’s University of Technology, told 95bFM’s The Wire that there was a marked decrease in New Zealand’s rankings over the last decade or so, leading to concern about its control of corruption.
“In 2015, our score was 91 out of 100… In academic terms, we were an A plus student, and we were ranked basically number one in the world… We’ve come down from 91 to 81, in academic terms, we’ve gone from an A plus student to an A minus student.”
Dr. Raskovic also warned that New Zealand is facing losing its worldwide status as a country free of corruption, if the drop in CPI numbers continues.
“What’s even more worrying is that if this trend continues as early as next year, we might even drop out of the top performing group altogether, and all of a sudden find ourselves in a B plus group.”
Dr. Raskovic says that New Zealand’s drop, and the drop of other countries once safely at the top of the rankings like Canada and Sweden, can be attributed to a number of different factors.
He says one is that anti-corruption safeguards in countries that have had strong protections are failing, or that anti-corruption laws are not being enforced strongly enough. In New Zealand in particular, Dr. Raskovic highlights the current National coalition government’s ties to the tobacco lobby and real estate lobby as potential factors in contributing to New Zealand’s decline on the CPI.
He also says that alongside New Zealand’s drop, the worldwide decline in rankings in the CPI is also a cause for concern.
“Two-thirds of the world, in academic terms, would be perceived as failing students… the global average [CPI score] is 42… What we have seen this year, for the first time, is [that] the global CPI score dropped from 43 to 42.”
Dr. Raskovic says that while the drop in global CPI score is numerically small, it shows that there are “structural forces” at play in contributing to the score decline, and is not a problem restricted to individual countries.
He adds that New Zealand in particular is a subject of concern for international corruption watchdogs, though not much has been done by the government to address corruption.
“The writing has been on the wall for over a decade, and the current and previous governments seem to not have been interested in addressing some of the issues that Transparency International New Zealand have been calling for.”
He says that there are clear solutions to New Zealand’s corruption problem, and that stopping the decline is not a lost cause.
“New Zealand needs to start thinking about having a clear, coherent, national-level anti-corruption strategy. We should really consider establishing a national-level central government-led anti-corruption agency… We have to make sure our lobbying rules [as well] are fit for purpose, and that there is greater transparency around political donations to specific parties.”
