Contact us English About What we do Investors Sustainability Careers News Suppliers Search Home About Operating ethically Interacting with governments BHP maintains ethical relationships with governments and their agencies, officials and personnel. Our ability to conduct business is directly affected by government decision-making and it is important we have open and constructive relationships with government. BHP's Code of Business Conduct is based on Our Charter values. The Code represents our commitment to uphold ethical business practices and meet or exceed applicable legal requirements. We believe that exercising consistent and proper business conduct creates loyalty and trust with our stakeholders. The Code outlines our approach to corporate participation in political activities. It states that "we will not make political contributions in cash or in-kind anywhere in the world". Consistent with this approach, we do not contribute funds to any political party, politician, elected official or candidate for public office in any country. In keeping with local and international anti-corruption laws, we prohibit authorising, offering, giving or promising anything of value directly or indirectly (via a third party) to a government official to influence official action, or to anyone to encourage them to perform their work disloyally or otherwise improperly. We also require that third parties acting on our behalf operate to BHP standards and do not violate anti-corruption laws. In furtherance of the Code, BHP has over 20 governing documents known as Our Requirements (previously Group Level Documents (GLDs)) that outline the minimum standards required of all BHP employees, Assets and Global Functions in relation to all key aspects of company operations. Compliance with Our Requirements is subject to rolling internal audit processes. In particular, Our Requirements for Communications, Community and External Engagement provides for consistency in BHP government relations activities. Contact with government is managed centrally to enable company-wide engagement and policy alignment. The Corporate Affairs function is consulted before anyone engages with government or communicates externally on public policy issues that could impact our reputation, providing consistency and adherence to the Code of Conduct across all activities. The Chief Legal, Governance and External Affairs Officer is ultimately responsible for the delivery and alignment of our government relations activities as set out in Our Requirements for Communications, Community and External Engagement. In addition to the role performed by Corporate Affairs, giving or offering anything of value to a government official, or a person who represents others above certain thresholds requires pre-approval which is coordinated by the Compliance team led by the Chief Compliance Officer. Through public submissions, opinion pieces and comments in the media we continually raise issues that are important to us and promote policy reforms that we believe will best serve the interests of our business, shareholders, employees and host communities. For example, we have recently made public submissions and comments on a range of topics in Australia including tax, industrial relations, energy policy, the extractives industry, strengthening foreign bribery laws and trade. A number of recent public policy submissions together with links appear below. BHP’s public policy submissions are generally made public on the company’s website or on the website of the relevant government agency unless the submission contains commercial-in-confidence information. Explore our broader contribution in our 2020 Economic Contribution Report. © BHP 2021 About What we do Investors Sustainability Careers News Suppliers Contact us Keep in touch Follow BHP to stay up to date https://www.facebook.com/BHP https://www.linkedin.com/company/bhp/ https://www.twitter.com/BHP https://www.youtube.com/BHP Privacy Policy Modern Slavery Act Statement Terms of use Some cookies are strictly necessary for the operation of our website. We also use cookies to monitor your use of our website, compile aggregate data and provide you with a good experience when you browse our website. You can choose to accept or reject cookies, or manage your specific cookie options. For more detailed information on what cookies are and how they work, please read our Cookies Policy. Manage cookies Decline All Accept Cookie Preferences