Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, Carers and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Hansard source

Before this debate concluded last night, I had not had an opportunity to put on the record the coalition’s position with regard to this amendment. I agree with the comments Senator Milne made last night that the Prime Minister has talked a lot but he has not actually done very much. I do not agree with her comments that we should be modelling our legislation on American legislation. I am paraphrasing Senator Milne here. She referred to President Obama and his position on similar amendments. Simply because it is happening in America does not mean it should happen in Australia.

There has been a bit of comment from the coalition over a period of time and more recently by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Turnbull, about the payments of excessive benefits. However, Mr Turnbull’s comments were constrained, I believe, to CEOs. The amendment proposes much broader ranging reforms, and the coalition will not be supporting them because we believe that they would not be to the long-term benefit of the Australian corporate sector.