Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pity such legally incisive minds as Senator Brandis’s were not brought to bear on solving this problem for the almost 12 long years his party were in government and did nothing. You did nothing in government—lots of talk about cracking down on executive pay and golden parachutes, but you did nothing. In this very Senate I remember Senator Conroy, four years ago, presenting this package to the Senate in respect of a corporate law bill, and Mr Costello saying, ‘No, we are not going to hold executives accountable for these sorts of golden handshakes.’ Senator Coonan opposed this package of reforms four years ago when she described it as throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You said we could not crack down on senior executives’ termination payments because that ‘throws the baby out with the bathwater’. That is a direct quote, Senator Coonan—how you described this measure four years ago. (Time expired)