Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

The amendments that have been proposed in the Senate are agreeable to the government. I will go to some of the specifics of these amendments. There is an amendment to schedule 2 returned from the Senate which relates to periodic investment reporting by the Future Fund. This amendment is identical to the one that the previous government introduced in the last parliament but never implemented. The proposed provisions would align reporting for the Future Fund, as far as is practicable, with the portfolio holdings regime that exists for superannuation funds, as outlined in the Corporations Regulations 2001. The government supports transparency and accountability, and, in the same way that we were prepared to support the previous government's amendments to require this reporting in the previous term of parliament, we are quite prepared to support the amendments before us today.

The amendments to schedule 3 of the bill ensure that the transitional provisions operate as intended for overseas aid organisations. These amendments are consistent with the report of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee and recommendation 2 from the additional comments from the Australian Greens.

I want to particularly thank the extraordinarily capable Chair of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, Senator Jess Walsh, as well as the other members of that committee, Senator Andrew Bragg, Senator Nick McKim, Senator Deborah O'Neill, Senator Jana Stewart and Senator Dean Smith and the secretariat, Tas Larnach, Michael Finch and Parabhjot Saini. I want to especially thank, on behalf of the government, Senator Rice and Senator McKim, for their constructive engagement in the interest of creating a better and more supportive framework for Australian charities to do their critical work. I know their deep commitment to the Australian charity sector and to ensuring that Australian overseas aid has its maximum impact, and I thank them for their constructive engagement with my office and with the government more broadly on these important issues.

I want to also acknowledge a number of outside organisations that have made thoughtful and constructive contributions to these amendments: the Law Council of Australia, through their CEO, James Popple, their director of policy, Leonie Campbell, Geoff Provis and Seak-King Huang; the Stronger Charities Alliance, particularly Ray Yoshida and Saffron Zomer; the Australian Council for International Development, particularly Marc Purcell, Jessica Mackenzie and Antonia Pannell; and Oxfam, through Lyn Morgain and her extraordinarily capable team. I acknowledge, too, Retail Drinks Australia and Michael Waters, for their engagement through this process. Naturally I'd like to thank Treasury officials, for their policy and drafting support, and my chief of staff, Nick Terrell, for his extraordinarily capable management of this process.

I commend the Senate amendments to the House.

Question agreed to.