Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Now we are all out of our misery. What a report on what could possibly be wrong. Where do we start? Is this the politics of envy? Is this the politics of inequity? Fair suck of the sauce bottle! Really and truly! Is there a suggestion from Senator Dastyari that everybody that has a turnover of less than $100 million is fully compliant and those over $100 million are not going to be compliant unless their full financials are published? Spare me!

What we are hearing in the contribution from Senator Dastyari is outrageous. It assumes that Chris Jordan, the Commissioner of Taxation in this country, cannot possibly do his job unless all private companies with a turnover in excess of $100 million have their full details—and all of their commercial transactions and effectively the insides of their businesses operations—exposed publicly. That is completely outrageous. It assumes that unless everything is published, we—'nosey senators' as I think he has referred to in the dissenting report—are the only ones who can find out all these wicked people in private enterprise.

The basic tenet of taxation and the application of paying tax and the relationship between the tax commissioner and any company—public or private or an individual—is one in which confidentiality prevails. It is a tenet which is sacrosanct.

The contribution we have just heard is not just outrageous. And I mention the word outrageous because we heard some other outrageous comments earlier. He made some reference to Prime Minister Turnbull earlier, about where his business affairs are domiciled. I can assure you that some junior woodchuck, ex of Sussex Street—