Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Pardon me. I seek leave to speak to the report.

Leave granted.

It may not surprise the House to hear that I have a very different take. This inquiry was moved by the Senate. It was done very surprisingly. There was little matter on the public record, except from a number of journalists—and one in particular—about concerns around the auditing sector. Most of the concerns that people pointed to actually did not occur in Australia but occurred in North America and, in some limited examples, in the United Kingdom. The reforms that have been undertaken in the United Kingdom have had so many unexpected and adverse impacts that they are now being reviewed by the authorities over there to see if some of them need to be reversed.

What we saw in Australia—and let there be no doubt—is that our auditing sector is working incredibly well. In fact, in relation to most of the organisations that have found themselves insolvent, the concerns of auditors around the financial aspects of those businesses were well telegraphed. Australians need to know that our corporate regulations and the providers of financial services in this country are delivering for investors. Some of the allegations about work practices and whistleblowers that were aired during the committee inquiry were certainly made. None of them—not a single one—could be verified. Not one skerrick of evidence was brought to the committee. There seems to be nothing but a healthy sector that is delivering transparent, honest advice to all Australians who invest in corporations in this country. Frankly, it is something that we and this parliament should be proud of, and the committee report demonstrates that. I hope that that is noted out of this report.

See this speech in context