Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

And that they use those powers, absolutely—that those powers are used fully but correctly. I think we will all monitor that. We will all make sure that that is the case, and certainly the Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services will have oversight, in its work, of ASIC in terms of how those powers are actually monitored. But I do not see it—and this is where we may have a point of difference—as a political opportunity. The regulator and other agencies are independent. They should do their work independently. They should have ample scope and be free from fear of the parliament. They should know that the work they do is actually in the national interest and not on behalf of one political party or another. It is not in any political interest; it is in the national interest. It is about the markets. It is about doing the right thing.

I just want to get that on the record in terms of the broader intent of this amending legislation. It does do some very important things, and I will come to those. It is about making sure, firstly, that certain practices need to cease. In the past, unscrupulous operators would very unfairly and unjustifiably seek a listed company’s register and misuse that register of people’s details to write to them. We have all read many articles about the abuse that goes on of vulnerable and ordinary people. Somebody writes to that vulnerable person asking them to sell their shares, often at well below market rates. That practice needs to cease, and these amendments will go a long way to doing that. The bill will change the law and make it improper for someone to obtain a corporate register list for improper purposes. There is now a test, and what it means is that the company can refuse to hand over the list if it is not for proper purposes, and there are a range of penalties associated with that.

In terms of market manipulation, there are a range of activities that this amending legislation will increase the maximum criminal penalty for—from a, let us say, reasonably low basis to quite a substantial position. The bill increases the criminal penalty to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and/or the greater of 4½ thousand penalty units, which equals about $495,000 or three times the profit gained or loss avoided, for things such as insider trading; market manipulation; false trading and market rigging, which is creating a false or misleading appearance of active trading; false trading and market rigging in artificially maintaining a trading price; the dissemination of information about illegal transactions; false or misleading statements; inducing persons to deal in financial products; and dishonest conduct in relation to a financial service or product. It is, really, the whole gamut of misconduct and misuse of information in what is a very complex market. With technology, with the way that people operate and with the ability for people to understand our rules and work around those rules, it is very necessary to send out very strong signals, not only for individuals with regard to the maximum criminal penalties involved, which are quite substantial, but also for body corporates that breach those same principles of market manipulation, insider trading and so on. Those increased penalties will now be 45,000 penalty units, or $4.95 million, or three times the profit made or loss avoided, or 10 per cent of annual turnover during the relevant period.

This bill enhances Australia’s very good pillars of corporate governance of market regulation and continues the good work that we in government have done since 2007, since being elected. I commend the bill to the House.

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