Why Australians Remains Skeptical About Corporate Ethics - A Self-Reinforcing Cycle

by Austin Tran

Bachelor of Commerce student Austin Tran is the winner of the 2025 Natoli Student Ethics Competition for an undergraduate student.

From the public's perspective, corporate ethics increasingly resembles a branding tool rather than a true moral backbone. Companies are believed to sideline ethical conduct unless it is forecasted to increase profit. This belief is reinforced by high-profile cases of greenwashing in Australia, where companies secretly engage in unethical practices while branding themselves as sustainable.

A recent and striking example is Active Super, a superannuation fund that claimed to exclude investment in fossil fuels and gambling. Yet in 2024, after being caught investing in sectors that they proudly claimed to avoid, Active Super became the third entity in Australia to face court over greenwashing.

Worse still, organisations caught out for ethical misconduct frequently continue to operate with minimal consequence. This raises a difficult but necessary question: Are SDG frameworks truly working? When firms can selectively align with sustainability goals and face few repercussions for ethical failings, public scepticism is not just understandable, it’s inevitable.

That scepticism feeds into a self-reinforcing cycle. If ethical initiatives are viewed as hollow, they fail to generate trust or reputational benefit for firms. Without evident benefits, there would be little incentives for companies to move beyond surface-level commitments. 

Worse, some businesses have begun to practice “greenhushing” to avoid public backlash and accusations of greenwashing. In trying to avoid scrutiny, these firms have decided to speak less about their progress, and intentionally underreport their sustainability efforts. Greenwashing, alongside the rising prevalence of greenhushing, is making it even harder for the public to distinguish between genuine and performative businesses. And so, the cycle of public distrust and corporate performativity continues.

Breaking this loop requires more than better frameworks, it demands stronger enforcement and transparency. Until then, Australians are likely to remain on the fence, not because they don’t care, but because they’ve seen this all before.