Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

What concerns me about the minister’s approach is that, when we discussed this matter at estimates and I wanted an indication of what the checks—the process that would be undertaken—would be, he said: ‘We’ve got these criteria in the bill.’ That is fine. Labor has no argument about the criteria in the legislation. Presumably their officers will do something. It would be politically smart if they did, certainly if they went a little bit further than they did with the appointment of Mr Gerard.

But let us just take the issue surrounding Mr Gerard. I do not want to overstate it but, at the moment, my understanding, on the government’s argument, is that you could not check the company tax activities of an individual that may be appointed to the Future Fund board. Government does not have the power, on its claims, to do that. I would have thought it would be smart to be able to do that and to have that in the legislation. We do not know whether the minister’s office or officers will check with the Federal Police. We do not know whether they will check with APRA, the regulator of financial institutions in this country. I am sure they have given some consideration to this. I am sure they have asked: ‘What level of checks will we carry out on the background of the people?’ I am sure the ministers have thought about how we check on these people.

So why won’t the minister outline whether there will be a Federal Police check, whether there will be a tax office check, including their company activities, or whether there will be a check with APRA? It seems to me that they are first base. If they come from overseas or they have had some overseas financial activity, will there be a check with the overseas financial regulators and authorities? It seems to me that they are all prudent things to do in respect of the background of the individuals for what is a unique and highly responsible institution. But the minister cannot outline what the checks will be other than just saying: ‘Trust us’ and ‘Business as usual. We’ll get an officer and go out and do a bit of a check.’ I think in the case of Mr Gerard it was a check of the newspaper clips. That is not an assurance that we can take at face value and that is not a vetting and checking procedure that Labor believes is appropriate.