Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens do not support the question before the chair. I do want to make some comments about the Financial Accountability Regime Bill 2022 negotiations, but before I do I want to be abundantly clear that the Australian Greens certainly do not support the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 being referred to a committee for an inquiry that is both needless and designed only to delay. Neither do we accept that the management of the chamber this week has been chaotic. In fact, it has been very productive, and we genuinely hope that next week will be the same.

On the Financial Accountability Regime Bill, on Tuesday this week, at about six o'clock, Minister Jones and I met in his office and we made an agreement. That agreement was that the Greens would facilitate the passage this year of the Treasury Laws Amendment (2022 Measures No. 2) Bill 2022, the Treasury Laws Amendment (2022 Measures No. 3) Bill 2022, and the Financial Accountability Regime Bill and its cognate bills. The condition on which that was agreed was that the government would support the Greens amendment to the Financial Accountability Regime Bill 2022 to insert civil penalties for accountable people, including bank executives, for breaches of their accountability obligations. That would have been a great step forward.

Yesterday, Minister Jones and I met again in his office, and he informed me that the government was no longer prepared to honour that agreement. We all know what's happened here. Labor has cracked under pressure from the bank executives. Reneging on the agreement shows very clearly that Labor values the interests of bankers over the interests of customers. Minister Jones has learned very clearly what happens when you get in between a bank executive and a bag of money. He's learned that you get absolutely steamrolled, and that's what has happened to him this week. There is absolutely no doubt that Minister Jones and I had an agreement, and any claim that there was no agreement is false.

I can also inform the Senate that yesterday evening I wrote to Minister Jones offering a revised agreement in which the Australian Greens would facilitate the passage of the relevant bills this year on the basis that the government would support a revised amendment which would ensure that small and mutual banks and, importantly, executives of small and mutual banks are not unreasonably impacted. For clarity, this means that executives of small and mutual banks would not be subject to civil penalties for breaches of their accountability obligations. In other words, we would be going squarely after the top end of town, where this kind of reform is so desperately needed to send a clear message to the executives of the big banks in this country that their poor behaviour and their appalling culture, uncovered by a once-in-a-generation royal commission, will not be tolerated any longer. We hope the government is prepared to accept our revised offer, which we make in good faith, despite what has happened in the last 24 hours. We look forward to the government's response.