Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here very happy to support this bill with my Labor colleagues, and I note the excellent contribution by the member for Oxley, Milton Dick. 'Greedy', 'dishonest', 'mistrust', 'dodgy', 'criminals'—sadly, all too often, these are the words we hear used to describe Australia's financial and big business sector. As the member for Herbert, a community that has deeply suffered because of corporate greed that includes the likes of Clive Palmer and Storm Financial, I ask: is it any wonder that the financial sector's reputation is damaged in my community and around the nation?

Time and time again, newspapers and social media feature articles about the corporate greed that is rife in this country. The royal commission into banking—a commission that, by the way, the Turnbull government didn't think we needed to have—has highlighted the lengths and depths that the finance industry is prepared to go to to make money: practices that promote the notion that the end justifies the means regardless of who gets hurt along the way. As we all know, thousands of people have been badly hurt and damaged. The royal commission has revealed just how fast and loose the Australian banks have played with Australian families' and workers' livelihoods. We have witnessed bank bosses who were aware of widespread fraud but did absolutely nothing. We have witnessed banks and financial services charge for non-existent services and then lie repeatedly to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about their practices. This behaviour is deplorable, it is disgusting, and it is led by pure corporate greed at the expense of innocent people.

But none of what the royal commission has unearthed is news to Australian families and workers, especially those who have been impacted. We have known for years about the deceit and destruction that the victims have experienced, because they have been telling us. Sadly, this government just would not listen. The reports, the surveys and the pleas from the victims begging the LNP government to do something have been there for the last six years.

This government has chosen to do nothing but ignore Labor's calls and fight against every opportunity to do something to end this disgraceful situation. The evidence has been there all along. In 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report titled Corruption: from the boardroom to the backroom. Surely, the title of the PwC report is a dead giveaway as to what the it would include. Obviously, it wasn't as clear to those in government, the elected representatives who sit opposite to me, because they chose to do nothing. Allow me to enlighten those members.

The report found that 50 per cent of Australian organisations experienced white-collar crime in the last two years, from the date of the report's release. Of that, 47 per cent suffered more than 10 fraud incidents over that time frame. Of the 57 per cent who were victims of white-collar crime, one third of organisations lost more than $1 million. If you think it would be worse elsewhere, you are very wrong. More Australian organisations have reported significantly more white-collar crime than our global neighbours. Just 32 per cent of countries in the Asia-Pacific region describe themselves as victims of white-collar crime, compared to Australia's 57 per cent. It is no wonder, when you look at the toothless tiger laws for white-collar criminals.

People who commit white-collar crime in Australia are getting off lightly compared to those found guilty of similar offences in other countries. Let's compare and contrast. People who provide financial services without a licence in Australia can only be fined up to $34,000. In contrast, people guilty of the same offences in the US face a maximum fine of $5.6 million. In the UK, the fine is unlimited. The maximum civil penalty in Australia for giving inappropriate advice is $200,000 while in the UK the fine is unlimited and in Hong Kong it is the greater of $1.4 million or three times the benefit gained by the wrongdoer.

Studies show that individuals who break corporate rules in the US may have prison sentences of up to 20 years. In Australia, and most other jurisdictions studied, the maximum prison term is 10 years for criminal penalties such as fraud and insider trading. The maximum prison term for providing financial services without a licence in Australia is just two years. On top of imposing fines and prison terms, regulators elsewhere can remove financial benefits that wrongdoers have obtained through illegal profit or avoided losses. ASIC does not have that power, although it can ask other agencies to bring an action to confiscate the proceeds of crime. The relatively low fixed fines that ASIC can impose and the fact that it cannot remove the proceeds of crime itself means that wrongdoers may still profit from their conduct and not be deterred by the penalties. ASIC is not to blame for this, as they have been screaming at the top of their lungs for harsher penalties for many years.

Over the last two years, former commissioner Greg Medcraft has made numerous calls and very strong statements about the problems occurring with white-collar crime in Australia. He has stated:

The penalties, particularly civil penalties, in Australia for white-collar offences are basically not strong enough, not tough enough. All you're doing is giving them a slap on the wrist [and] that is not deterring people.

He said you have to 'lift the fear and suppress the greed'. There you have it: comments clear as daylight from the person who knows, lives and breathes these corruptions all day, every day.

In fact, Mr Medcraft has gone a step further. Last year he called Australia a paradise for white-collar crime. On top of the fraud, deceit, tax evasions, money laundering and lies there is a new business model being used by these greedy corporations. That business model is wage and superannuation theft. This is the latest threat for working Australians. Instead of a perpetrator climbing in your window at night to rob you, businesses are instead robbing workers' back pockets. Almost every single day I am meeting a local Townsville resident who is owed either wages or superannuation. At a mobile office a couple of months ago, the entire staff of a retail centre stated that they were affected; they were owed both wages and superannuation. There are people in the Herbert community who work in the hot sun all day, six days a week, as tradesmen, who are owed over $100,000 in unpaid wages accumulated over a number of years. Herbert has the highest unpaid or underpaid superannuation in the entire state of Queensland, with more than 22,000 people owed money that totals over $53 million.

Some of the people affected are textile workers in Townsville who have not yet been paid their superannuation payment for more than four years. Some of these workers are almost 60 years of age; they are close to retirement, and they want and desperately need their superannuation as they are not wealthy people. Two weeks ago, I stood with the textile union and workers to call out the dodgy practices and unpaid superannuation impacting on local workers. These are people who haven't been politically active previously but are standing up and fighting a system that has allowed this sort of behaviour to occur. They are standing up and fighting back against the Turnbull government, which just does not seem to care about them. I believe Gordon Gekko, an infamous movie icon who represents the epitome of corporate greed, said it best in the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, where he said, 'Greed is good. Now it seems it's legal.' Given what has been revealed in the royal commission hearings, this quote does appear to be 100 per cent correct. If there are not effective laws to punish white collar criminals then they will continue to get away with robbing Australian families and workers. If there aren't the resources in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission then there is no-one to police these crimes. And if there aren't the resources in the Australian Taxation Office then there is no-one to make these organisations pay outstanding superannuation. But instead of the Turnbull government investing in resources for ASIC or resources for the ATO, they are making massive cuts. The Turnbull government has cut 110 jobs from the ATO's Townsville office. That's not only local jobs; that's resources for investigating dodgy white-collar criminal activity.

Once again, the former commissioner for ASIC, Greg Medcraft, has called for more resources and support from the Turnbull government, when he said: 'If we want to react faster then having more resources to be able to do it is important.' None of this is news for the Turnbull government. Whilst the Turnbull government is making cuts and underfunding the organisations that are there to police and protect families and workers from these dodgy companies and practices, this government is rewarding corporate greed by offering an $80 billion tax cut to big business and the banks. How out of touch can you be? On top of the cuts and ignorance, the Turnbull government is demonising the one entity that has always supported workers and has always looked after Aussie workers and their families and, of course, I am referring to the mighty union movement.

Yesterday, I was proud to march alongside my union comrades to celebrate Labour Day, a day when we remember the battles fought and won by Australian workers and unions. There have been many battles fought by my comrade predecessors, but none have been as tough as the challenges that workers and unions face today—the challenges thrown up by this out-of-touch, top-hat Turnbull government, a government that has no concern for Australian workers and their families, and a government that will not recognise that families are struggling every day to make ends meet.

I will fight against the Turnbull government's cuts, especially those to the ATO in Townsville. I will stand up for workers who haven't been paid their wages and superannuation, and I will continue to fight—

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