Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne and, as I passed him in business class when walking down to my economy seat on a plane from Melbourne to Canberra, I did not realise he was such a bastion of purity on these issues—not to mention your carbon footprint, member for Melbourne, in a business class seat compared to mine in an economy seat. Our position is very clear. We think that a 25 per cent penalty regime which, up until today, has not existed, will provide sufficient incentives for members to ensure that they do not make those inadvertent errors. And, if any citizen, senator or member knowingly, deliberately defrauds the Commonwealth, the ordinary criminal law will apply. How hard is that for the member to understand? It will ordinarily apply.

Our position is very clear. A penalty regime of 25 per cent will provide the incentives to ensure that all of us scrutinise our entitlements in a way that, clearly, in isolated circumstances, has not been the case in the past.

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