Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (2) to (7) on sheet 5307:

(2)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 3 (line 12), omit “request”, substitute “require”.

(3)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 3 (line 17), omit “Request”, substitute “Requirement to produce information and documents”.

(4)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 3 (line 18), omit “request”, substitute “require”.

(5)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (line 10), omit “Request”, substitute “Requirement to produce report”.

(6)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (line 11), omit “request”, substitute “require”.

(7)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (after line 17), after section 5DB, insert:

5DBA Failure to produce information, documents or a report

                 If a person fails to produce information, documents or a report in accordance with section 5DA or 5DB, as the case may be, the person is guilty of an offence.

Penalty:    (a) in the case of a natural person—600 penalty units; or

                  (b) in the case of a body corporate—5,000 penalty units.

I have debated these amendments substantially. These amendments replace the empowerment of the authority or the commission to request information, replacing it with the power to require the production of information. I have debated the reasons for that. With respect to amendment (7), because we would see this as being a power to compel, the failure to comply ought have a penalty. This amendment contains penalty provisions, based on the current Criminal Code penalty of $110 per unit. In our view, if we are going to have real teeth for the regulator, this is the sort of provision that is necessary. We are still unable to fathom the government’s resistance to this proposition.