Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement in relation to the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Better Targeting the Income Tax Transparency Laws) Bill.

Leave granted.

In the last parliament, laws were passed to come into effect on 1 July 2015 for companies with revenue over $100 million to publish five things: their company name, ABN, total revenue, total taxable income and tax paid. The ATO has not yet published this information despite the legal requirement to do so. Now, through this amendment bill, the government wants to exempt private Australian companies from disclosing these details on the basis that private company owners will be at heightened risk of kidnap and the disclosure of their commercially sensitive information.

The Greens would like to put on record, and we would have spoken strongly against this at length had we had the opportunity to do so, that we would have voted against this amendment and we certainly would have called a division. The reason for our opposition is there is no evidence to back up this amendment. This was looked at extensively and these private companies that the government want to exempt through this bill possess the key hallmarks of tax avoidance structures. They do not have to publicly disclose information, many are part of global groups of companies with varying levels of ownership and they do not have to turn a huge profit in Australia compared to their overseas operations.

The key weapon we have in our arsenal, the key weapon we have to prevent or at least disincentivise or discourage tax avoidance, is reputational risk. It would have been simple to at least have a register of companies, where they put up how much tax they are paying, and it is a significant matter of public interest that this has now been withdrawn.

Lastly, I would like to state a thankyou to the Tax Justice Network, who were tireless in coming into this building to meet with most of us and push for this exact kind of legislation to try to make this available. We regret, once again, that we were not able to speak at length about this bill and register our strong protest at this amendment being passed.