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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware that it can be difficult to identify the beneficial owners that would have an influence over our media lying behind a consortium of foreign private equity funds? Is the minister concerned that investors in such funds do not appear on the register and are not readily identifiable? Does the minister know that private equity funds do not just come from legitimate sources but that there is literally hundreds of billions of dollars in criminal money looking for an investment home, sourced from gambling, drugs, prostitution, people trafficking, pornography and criminal activity? What rules, regulations or laws do you have in place that ensure Australia knows exactly who the beneficial owners of our media will be? Can you assure us that none of our media could end up controlled by funds that are influenced by criminal money, money sourced from anti-democratic groups, from theocratic or fundamentalist groups or from proscribed organisations?