Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity to support Micah Challenge and their campaign to halve global poverty by 2015. I typically want to draw to the attention of the parliament their Shine the Light program aimed at reducing corruption by increasing tax transparency. Corruption continues to act as a brake that impedes the development of developing countries. There are in fact 3½ billion people living in countries which are rich in oil, gas and minerals. Revenue from these sectors is often one of the greatest sources of wealth generated within developing countries but such wealth often, regrettably, provides little benefit to the people living in these countries and especially those living in poverty.

Currently many mining, oil and gas companies only report their finances on a global or regional basis, making it impossible to know the financial information relevant to each country that they are operating in. After the GFC, the US government introduced the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which requires companies in the oil, gas and mining sector listed on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to report on the taxes and royalties paid to governments on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis. This is a step towards reducing tax evasion and other forms of corruption by making it harder for companies to shift their revenue to tax havens unseen. It also increases the ability of citizens of developing countries to hold their own governments to account for the tax revenue they receive from natural resources.

The oil, gas and mining sector in developing countries has often been associated, regrettably, with large levels of corruption and lost revenue for the ordinary people of the country. There are companies already doing country-by-country reporting, such as Exxon Mobil and Rio Tinto, and the following ASX companies will be required to adhere to the US rules and provide country-by-country reporting: BHP Billiton, Alcoa Alumina, Ivanhoe Australia, Allied Gold and so on. The G20 has encouraged disclosures by the mining, oil and gas industries of payments made to governments. Along with the US reforms, the Hong Kong stock exchange already has a more limited form of country-by-country reporting in place and Norway has promised to introduce legislation requiring its mining companies to report the taxes and royalties they pay on a country-by-country basis by 2014. Micah Challenge says—and I think this has considerable merit—that Australia should follow the example of the US, Hong Kong and Norway and introduce robust legislation requiring mining, oil and gas companies that have a presence in Australia to report the taxes and royalties they pay to governments on a country-by-country basis as a step towards helping people in developing countries to benefit from their natural resources.