Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

It's never the wrongdoer who is punished or held accountable by this Prime Minister. This Prime Minister has made it clear that ministers in his government can get away with pretty much anything. They can rort grant programs, use forged documents and even call a young woman who alleges that she was raped in the office of the Minister for Defence 'a lying cow'. Ministers can do all those things and more with complete impunity. And with this bill the Prime Minister is telling company directors that he wants them to be able to act with impunity too, without having to worry about being held to account by shareholders. To the great credit of most company directors in Australia—at least, according to King & Wood Mallesons' survey of company directors—they have rejected the need for these changes, because most company directors are not like the current Prime Minister. Most company directors and most Australians have more integrity in their little fingers than the Prime Minister has in his entire cabinet.

So afraid of scrutiny is this Morrison government that it has gone to an enormous effort to prevent Australian shareholders even finding out about the measures in schedule 2 of this bill, let alone raising concerns. The Senate committee tasked with inquiring into this bill was given only three weeks to receive submissions from members of the public and issue a report. With the support of every single crossbench senator, the Senate voted to extend the committee's reporting date to 30 June 2021 so that mum-and-dad investors, self-funded retirees, large institutional investors and everyone else affected by this bill would have an opportunity to be heard. But, disgracefully, the Liberal-controlled Senate committee ignored the will of the Senate and tabled its report early, on 12 March. Not even the Treasury had time to make a submission to that inquiry. In fact, no government agency or department made any submission at all—not ASIC, which is opposed to the measures in schedule 2; not the ACCC, which is also opposed to them; and not the Attorney-General's Department. If the Treasury, the Attorney-General's Department, ASIC and the ACCC don't have time to prepare a submission, what hope do the mum-and-dad investors and self-funded retirees of Australia have?

Fortunately, the Senate has told the Morrison government that it will not let it ram these changes through the parliament. Yesterday, with the support of all Senate crossbenchers, except Senator Griff from Centre Alliance, the Senate supported Labor's motion to establish a new inquiry into this legislation. That inquiry will not be controlled by the reckless incompetence of the Liberal Party and will report on 30 June 2021. Though we have some concerns about the long-term effectiveness and desirability of virtual annual general meetings, Labor have told the government we're prepared to work with the government to ensure that the measures in schedule 1 can pass the parliament this week. (Time expired)

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