Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Speaker. I will come back to the provisions of the bill.

The Open Government National Action Plan was developed collaboratively by the government and civil society. The plan consists of a package of 15 commitments that aim to advance transparency, accountability, public participation and technological innovation in Australia. I will say that again: transparency, accountability, public participation and technological innovation. We need to encourage people to put their savings into Australian companies, to create jobs in this country and to create those technological innovations that will lift our productivity and lift real wages.

Yet there are those in this House that want to see a taxation system that encourages investment in overseas shares. They want to change the playing field and move the goalposts. Investment has happened in Australian businesses and Australian shares listed on the ASX, but they are now to be put at a disadvantage so that there will be encouragement in investment in money overseas. That is not only unfair, that is not only discriminatory, that is not only regressive; that is also anti-Australian. On this side of the House we will call that out every single day of the week.

Stronger whistleblower protection is the first commitment of the plan. It is designed to support the plan's objective of enhancing Australia's reputation for responsible, transparent and accountable business practices. How can we have accountable business practices where one class of Australians has to pay a 30 per cent marginal rate of tax on the first dollar that they earn? The government's commitment is to ensure that Australia has appropriate protections in place for people who report corruption, fraud, tax evasion or avoidance and misconduct within the corporate sector. This will be achieved by introducing whistleblower protections for people who disclose information about tax misconduct to Australian Taxation Office, and it will strengthen and harmonise corporate whistleblower protections for those in the public sector.

Specifically, the commitment will strengthen whistleblower protections and will advance the Open Government Partnership values of public accountability and transparency by encouraging, protecting and compensating whistleblowers whose information reveals artificial tax structures and misconduct. We don't want to see artificial tax structures in this country. We want to see that no Australian is discriminated against in the rate of tax that they should have to pay. It's a marginal rate of tax. Everyone should be under the same rules— (Time expired)

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