Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's very important that our corporate regulator is respected and feared. I regret to say that in recent weeks the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has not performed particularly well. On 16 February this year, I asked ASIC a series of questions about an investigation into a commissioner, which ASIC initially sought to cover up, and then came clean on, in the same bizarre and shambolic estimates hearing. We then called ASIC back for a second attempt to try and get to the bottom of this situation. ASIC was able to provide some more information in the form of a letter from the Treasury Secretary, Steven Kennedy, to the Chair of ASIC setting out that there had been an investigation into a commissioner. The chair and the deputy chair of ASIC have different views about the contents of that particular investigation. The chair says the findings were mixed. The deputy chair says that they contain no adverse findings. Given that $200,000 of taxpayer funds have been spent to investigate this particular commissioner, it's very important that we understand what exactly happened here, because it's critical that the corporate regulator is beyond approach, that its own corporate governance be second to none.

I wanted to thank the Senate very much for supporting the motion yesterday that ASIC is required to supply that report by midday tomorrow. That report may come back with redactions to protect personal privacy, but it must contain the recommendations and findings that were made by the $200,000 report commissioned by the Treasury. So I wanted to thank the Senate very much for standing up for transparency and good governance in the case of our corporate regulator, which is very important.