Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I want to draw the Senate's attention to the fact that moving responsibility from the ATO to ASIC is fraught with danger. The key regulator, ASIC, themselves warn that their ability to have an impact and to do their job properly and supervise markets and companies was substantially reduced by the $120 million cut in the first coalition budget, which brought so much devastation to families around this country. We all remember that first budget. We remember the former Treasurer and Senator Cormann sitting out there with their Havanas, puffing away with great satisfaction after they had ripped into pensioners, ripped into welfare recipients and forced more costs onto workers every time they went to see the doctor. They were very satisfied with that. But what the public did not understand was that some of the regulation that put checks and balances into the corporate system was also ripped away in that first budget, to the extent that the ASIC chairman, Greg Medcraft, had said that their capacity to fulfil their role would be substantially reduced.

I recently participated in the insolvency inquiry into the building and construction industry, and what ASIC were clearly demonstrating there was that they have limited capacity to handle corporate malfeasance because they do not have the money. They just do not have the resources. So to put a proposition here that takes responsibility away from the ATO, which has had its funding cut as well, and gives it to ASIC and to present that as an acceptable proposition—to put that responsibility to an organisation that does not have the money and the resources to fulfil its existing obligations and responsibilities—shows just what this bill is about. It is about making sure that there is no capacity for the regulators to actually track down the tax rorters and the tax avoiders.

How the Greens could possibly agree to that amendment beggars belief. Surely someone in the Greens understands that both the tax office and ASIC are being starved of funding as part of the austerity approach to 'balance the budget' from the coalition. It was one of these 'budget emergencies'. We do not hear about budget emergencies anymore, even though our position is deteriorating under the coalition. We do not hear about that anymore, but we still see the cuts going into the corporate regulators who are there to try and ensure that business pays its fair share of tax. This proposition that you take it away from the ATO and put it into ASIC and ASIC will be able to handle it is just not true, and it should not be agreed to. Mr Medcraft is saying they want to push the case for user-funded models, because they are desperate to get cash so that they can do their job.

In that committee I was in it was clear that people could 'phoenix' companies in the building and construction industry and generally across the economy. That means they could deliberately kill a company and leave it with all its debts and set up another company that would be a new company—it would be what is described as a phoenix company. The evidence we had was that they could do that with impunity because ASIC did not have the resources or the funding to deal properly with phoenixing in any industry in this country. But now we are being told that, as part of this bill, we will take more responsibility from the ATO and put it into ASIC, and ASIC will be able to handle it. Well, ASIC will not be able to handle it.

The outcome of that will be exactly what the coalition want—that is, to ensure that there are no checks and balances on their mates that provide the funding for their election resources. That is what it is about. They just do not want their mates in the big end of town to pay their fair share of tax. Everyone else in the country can pay a higher GST—15 per cent GST. We know the secret plans there. That was reported yesterday. It is there—15 per cent GST on everything; on health, on education, on fresh food. That is where it is at.

Yet, what we have from the other side now are all these manoeuvres to try to make sure that if there is any capacity for this bill to deal with tax evasion properly, it will be diminished because ASIC are the organisation that have to deal with it and ASIC will not have the resources. This is another demonstration that Senator Di Natale was comprehensively outmanoeuvred, comprehensively done over, comprehensively pushed aside by whoever negotiated on behalf of the coalition—a great victory for the coalition, a great defeat for the Australian public. The Australian public are the ones who are going to have to pay the price for this. To actually contemplate asking ASIC to do more oversight and overview work with reduced resources is just not an acceptable proposition.

We even had Nationals Senator John Williams calling for a user-pays system to be introduced for financial advisers so that ASIC could better police the industry. I have a lot of differences with Senator Williams, and certainly the National Party, but there is one thing you can say about Senator Williams: he is on to this issue; he is on to the issue about corporate rorting. He is a lone voice in the coalition on this. He has understood the need for extra resources. Why couldn't the Greens understand that? Why couldn't the Greens understand that by moving any responsibility out of the tax office in to ASIC, we end up moving the responsibility to an organisation that does not have the resources or the capacity to deal with this effectively?

It is bad enough being totally outmanoeuvred in your negotiating position, as the Greens have been, it is bad enough just capitulating, as the Greens have, and it is bad enough making workers in this country pay more because you are not prepared to make sure that the big end of town pays their fair share, but to come here and argue on technical points that ASIC can do the job is just a complete misunderstanding of how things work and what has happened under this Abbott Turnbull government.

They look after the big end of town. They look after your mates. They do not care about those who are battling to look after their families, who are struggling to keep their heads above water, who know how difficult it is to buy the school uniforms and get the kids off to school, who know how expensive it is to go on public transport that could cost an extra 15 per cent in terms of GST. They do not care. I never thought I would see the day when the Greens would not care either. By passing this amendment, or supporting this bill, it shows that they really do not care, or they either do not care or do not understand the key issues affecting the Australian public in trying to simply get a fair go on taxation.

Capitulating to the negotiating strategy of the coalition is not about being on the side of the angels, as the Greens would have had us have it this morning. It is not about being on the side of the angels; it is about capitulating. It is about an absolutely amateurish approach to negotiation. It is about not having the courage to stand up for your convictions. It is about not having the values that your previous leader had in relation to making sure that everybody pays their fair share. What a capitulation from the Greens. What a disgrace. For a party who say they are progressive, for a party who say that they stand up for the battler, it is an absolute nonsense.

This is an area where this Senate had an opportunity to make sure that the rorters, the tax avoiders and the big businesses that are ripping off their workers paid their fair share of tax. This bill makes sure that that will not happen because there will be secrecy in place—we will not know what is in there. Joe Stiglitz, the Nobel winning economist, spoke about information asymmetry. That means you need to get all the information that you can for a properly operating market. Well, the market will not operate properly when you have certain companies that are not paying tax and nobody knows what is happening. There can be no public pressure on these companies because it is all kept quiet and secret.

Why is it kept quiet and secret? It is kept quiet and secret because these are the people who fund the coalition's election campaigns. They are the ones who are out arguing to rip off workers, get rid of their penalty rates, rip off 457 workers, rip off migrant workers. The big end of town are the people who are being protected under this bill. They will not even be required to disclose how much tax they are paying. ASIC will not be able to enforce it because they do not have the resources. This is an absolute joke. This is an area where the Greens have been absolutely outmanoeuvred, treated like absolute mugs, and they have not done what their previous leader said they should do—that is, deal with a comprehensive problem, an endemic problem, that meant that ordinary working people paid more tax. We heard that we were starting a journey. You do not start a long journey without a suitcase or without anything in it. Let me tell you: this long journey that the Greens think that they are starting on—the suitcase is empty, because they get no extra resources for ASIC. They get no extra resources for the ATO. They get no protection for the ordinary families of this country. It is an absolute debacle what has happened here.

I cannot understand the Greens for a minute who argue that they are the protectors of working people in this country. What an absolute joke! How can you protect ordinary working families when you simply give in to the big end of town—when you do not have the backbone, when you do not have the intellect and when you do not have the strength and courage of your convictions to stand up to the Havana-smoking frontbenchers over there who want to rip working people off? How can you have any credibility in this debate at all?

This is a party that has completely lost its way. What for? They want to be relevant—you are not relevant to the Australian public, if you allow the rip-offs to go on. You are not relevant to the Australian public, if you do not stand up for them. You are simply trying to achieve relevance, and relevance at any cost. Relevance of numbers and year do not automatically mean relevance for the Australian public. I think the relevance that is important is to stand up against the rip-off merchants, the big end of town and the rorters that are out there.

Senator Milne had it right: the former leader of the Greens identified the problems and the issues that had to be dealt with. Senator Dastyari took that work on, and we have got a way forward. But the Greens capitulated. They let the Havana-smoking frontbenchers over there—the supporters of the big end of town—take them to the cleaners with absolutely no capacity to negotiate, no courage to eyeball the coalition and no attempt to support ordinary working people. It is a disgrace. (Time expired)