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

I just want to respond to a comment that was made by Senator Whish-Wilson, because I think people will be watching this. I know that there are not a lot of financial advisers looking at this, because my office has been bombarded by calls from people concerned that this amendment, when it passes, will in fact cause the bill to go back to the other place and then sit there, and nothing will happen to this bill. Now, firstly, I just want to make sure that all those financial advisers understand that this bill is being supported by the Senate and that it has an amendment to correct an anomaly that creates a privileged class of companies here in Australia, which is no longer acceptable to Australians. I will just foreshadow—just advise what I've indicated privately to other senators in the this chamber—that when the bill goes back to the House, if it sits there, every treasury bill that has the right constitutional hook will have this amendment put. And if you want to stop all the bills passing through the House, for the purposes of protecting your financial mates, then that's how this is going to play out. So, I urge that when it goes back to the House you do deal with it and deal with it in accordance with the public interest that I've talked about in my second reading contribution and that Senator Whish-Wilson talked about as well.