Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. This Prime Minister voted against a banking royal commission 26 times and called it 'a populist whinge'. Last night, every member of the government voted against Labor's amendments to strengthen punishment for corporate criminals with tougher 15-year jail sentences for the most serious crimes and bigger fines for misconduct. Isn't it the case that, no matter what this Prime Minister pretends, he'll always stick up for the big banks and the top end of town?

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my right!

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Prime Minister, as Treasurer, instituted the royal commission on banking and finance. That Leader of the Opposition and all of those opposite, when they sat on the government benches, did absolutely nothing. I will allow the Treasurer to conclude the answer.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just before I call the Treasurer, I'm going to say to the House that the levels of interjections are not only disruptive but also demeaning to the House. When I became Speaker I said that of course this is a debating chamber where there'll be a vigorous debate—and there should be. But it doesn't have to be loud all the time or rude all the time with some of the personal abuse that's coming out. I'm not going to yell back; I'm just giving fair warning: I'm going to deal with it. I really am.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In six years, the Labor government did absolutely nothing to increase the penalties for misconduct. In fact, when the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, when Labor were in government, you had the collapse of Trio with 5,000 victims; you had 4,000 Storm Financial clients suffering losses of up to $3 billion; and you had Opes Prime, with 1,200 investors. It's been left to this government to establish the Financial System Inquiry. It's been left to this government to establish the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce, which involved an expert group. This expert group had three professors, the president of the Law Council and the CEO of the Consumer Action Law Centre. The bill before this parliament, which passed this House, was based on their recommendations.

As a result of the actions that this government has taken, we have increased criminal penalties for corporate misconduct for individuals fivefold. We have increased civil penalties for corporations and their misconduct tenfold. The other side of the House, the Labor Party, came in here and engaged in a political stunt. Thank you to the crossbenchers who supported the government in defeating those amendments. But, if that's not bad enough, what's happened in the Senate today is even worse. What the Labor Party has sought to do is to send the bill off to committee and defer the implementation of tougher penalties for another six months. So the people of Australia will not be protected from strong penalties against misconduct for months and months because of Labor's tactics and political stunts.

It's an inconvenient truth for the Leader of the Opposition that on his watch, on Labor's watch, you had the collapse of Trio, Storm and Opes. It's an inconvenient truth for the Leader of the Opposition that it's been left to the Liberal-National government to increase penalties for misconduct for individuals fivefold and to increase penalties for corporations tenfold. Only the coalition can be trusted to hold these financial institutions and individuals to account.