Grant Walton

Associate Professor Grant Walton is a geographer and development policy scholar at the Australian National University's Crawford School of Public Policy, affiliated with the Development Policy Centre and the Policy & Governance Program. He holds a PhD and Master's in Development Studies from the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on corruption, governance, and political geography in the Pacific Islands, particularly Papua New Guinea (PNG), examining anti-corruption reforms, education policy, and civil society engagement.

Walton has been recognized with nominations for the Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Anti-Corruption Excellence Award (2023, 2024) and ranked as Australia's 2nd most influential corruption scholar globally (ScholarGPS 2024). He has secured over AUD$2 million in research funding, including major projects like the 'Strengthening Society and State Responses to Corruption in PNG' (AUD$644,587) and 'PNG Education and Health Policy Reforms' (AUD$662,500).

His work bridges academic research and policy impact, addressing topics such as citizenship-by-investment schemes, fee-free education policies, and transnational crime in the Pacific. Media appearances include Channel 9 News, SBS, and The Australian, while his book Anti-Corruption and Its Discontents (Routledge 2018) explores local and international corruption narratives in PNG.