Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I will not add to the debate at any length because, on their face, the views of the various participants are clear. But there was a slightly cute point made by the minister in response to Senator Sherry. That was that he thought it passing strange—that is not the phrase he used but my interpretation of it—that Senator Sherry would be concerned about excessive government interference and intervention in the market and, at the same time, be supporting this amendment.

In fact, the bill already requires—and I think properly so—the government to be specific to the board about what it must do. Item 24(1)(a) to (e) does require the board to produce material, policies and an approach which will result in a specific attitude to market performance and behaviour by the fund. But the key point, of course, is that this amendment does not tell the board how to vote. They can vote for or against. It simply says they must vote in these three material matters.

I would buy the minister’s argument a little more if, in fact, the record of investment funds and investment managers was a good one with respect to participation in voting in company resolutions. But my recall of the data on voting by institutions is that it is the minority and not the majority, and most investment funds and directors have a history of delinquency with respect to exercising their duties in escrow. That is why I have felt obliged to put this amendment forward—because you cannot rely on boards based on their past history and past performance to vote. In my view they should be required to vote because they hold these investments in escrow. However, the minister has made the government’s views clear. I think they are wrong, they think I am wrong and hopefully the board will turn out to be an exemplary board and will always vote in these matters. I do hope that I will have the energy and time—and hopefully Senator Sherry will—to regularly ask the minister questions when they fail to vote in these matters.