Senate debates

Friday, 12 June 2020

Bills

Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 3) Bill 2019; In Committee

10:53 am

Photo of Rex PatrickRex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Centre Alliance amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 8968:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (at the end of the table), add:

(2) Page 71 (after line 3), at the end of the Bill, add:

Schedule 4—Financial reporting obligations for large proprietary companies

Part 1—Repeal of instrument

ASIC Corporations (Exempt Proprietary Companies) Instrument 2015/840

1 The whole of the instrument

Repeal the instrument.

Part 2—Grandfathered exemption

Corporations Act 2001

2 Subsection 1408(6) (table item 7)

Repeal the table item.

Part 3—Application

3 Application

(1) This item applies to a company if, immediately before the commencement of this item, the company was exempted from complying with subsection 319(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 by the ASIC Corporations (Exempt Proprietary Companies) Instrument 2015/840.

(2) Despite the amendments made by Parts 1 and 2, that exemption continues to apply to the company in relation to the 2019-20 financial year.

4 Instruments that provide relief from requirements of Corporations Act—Lodgment of annual reports by large proprietary companies

(1) Despite anything contained in the Corporations Act 2001, ASIC may not make a legislative instrument, however described, if that legislative instrument would have the effect of relieving the class of companies referred to in subitem (2) of the requirement to comply with subsection 319(1) of the Act for a financial year.

(2) The class of companies is the class of large proprietary companies that was relieved from the requirement to comply with subsection 319(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 due to the operation of the ASIC Corporations (Exempt Proprietary Companies) Instrument 2015/840 as in force immediately before the commencement of this Schedule.

I spoke about amendment (2) in my second reading contribution. It seeks to eliminate a privileged list of companies that do not have to lodge financial reports with ASIC. I understand that I will have the support of Labor, One Nation, the Greens and the Jacqui Lambie Network, which means it will pass. I understand that the government will not be supporting this amendment.

In that context, I just want to take the chamber to an article that was written by TheGuardian data journalist, Nick Evershed, back in 2015, when this was very topical. He basically compared the grandfathered list against the Australian Electoral Commission's donation records covering 1998 to 2014 and government contracts from AusTender covering 2007 to 2014. What he found was that 132 had given money to either the Labor Party or the Liberal Party or one of their associates, and 133 of the companies still on the list had held government contracts worth a total of $2.3 billion. I'm happy to say that that's not stopping Labor from supporting this. They get it. This is a very, very unfair arrangement where select people, well-known business people, are exempt from the requirements that apply to every other large proprietary company in lodging returns to ASIC. I just hope that is not the basis of the government's rejection of this amendment, and I look forward to hearing what the minister has to say.

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