Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) | Hansard source

Senator Patrick mentions ASIC. ASIC is an independent non-statutory agency. It is not up to the government to determine which areas or which action ASIC may or may not take. In the end, ASIC has got responsibilities that are well understood and well known. Consistently under the Corporations Act, they've got responsibilities in relation to market integrity and related matters, but it's entirely a matter for ASIC as an independent statutory agency to make these sorts of judgements based on the facts. That is not a matter for political decision-making, and I don't think that businesses around Australia ever would want this to be the subject of political decision-making. In relation to the Foreign Investment Review Board, I think I've answered that in my previous answer.