Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

You keep advising Mr Latham. I think you were very good at that. I am not sure I want to take your advice, though. Senator Brown, in relation to the Financial Transaction Reports Act, this parliament in fact put a requirement on financial institutions to provide reports and obtain verification. It was considered appropriate by this place that the electoral roll be made available for those institutions so they could abide by the requirement that this parliament had imposed on them. Those financial institutions no longer do that work. They have outsourced it to a third party. After consideration, it was agreed that they should have that access.

To take you through the history of it: there was a unanimous recommendation of the 2001 election report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters that suggested that there should be a limitation on who has access to the electoral roll for commercial reasons. That was something that I, as Special Minister for State at the time, thought was appropriate. It went through this place with virtually no discussion. One of the unforeseen consequences was that these financial institutions on whom we had put this duty were substantially disadvantaged. As a result, we are seeking to get rid of that unintended consequence so that the financial institutions can continue with their obligations under the Financial Transaction Reports Act.