Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They were treated leniently by the Cairns magistrate. I think they were find only $15,000. The excuse was they had a new engineer who could not read the English words on the thing and he forgot to shut off some valve or something. I think they were fined $15,000, I might say to the Greens so they can pass it on to their mates in Greenpeace. I was waiting and waiting to see whether they paid that. Wasn't I waiting for the day when the time came that they were going to be arrested! But they did do what they were supposed to do, and they actually paid the fine that was imposed. Perhaps, Mr Graeme Wood would have contributed to it, Senator Whish-Wilson—you know, the guy who supported the Greens political party with the biggest ever private donation to any political party in the history of Australian politics. He is a certain gentleman who I have known. I do not particularly blame him. But he gave it to the Greens who, with their normal hypocrisy, slag anyone else who receives donations from private sources. But when they are the recipient of the biggest ever individual political donation of any party at any time in Australian history, then that is okay. That is just the hypocrisy. But I have distracted myself because of the interjections.

The government is leading this fight against multinational tax avoidance. I mentioned that Mr Hockey was president of the G20 in 2014. I am very proud about this. We led the global response to tax avoidance. Last year, the government did strengthen our defences against tax avoiders by tightening our thin capitalisation rules and limiting the scope for multinationals to claim excessive debt reductions. We did already have some regulations in place, but they were being avoided. This measure that we are dealing with today is only one part of a package. This bill will also implement country-by-country reporting, which was a recommendation by the OECD and the G20, and it will increase the penalties for those engaged in tax avoidance and profit shifting. As we announced in the 2015-16 budget, the government is actioning four key G20 OECD recommendations that came out of that 2014 conference. In addition to implementing country-by-country reporting, the government is consulting on rules targeting hybrid mismatches and is taking action on harmful tax practices and treaty abuse rules. Although Australia does not engage in harmful tax practices, the ATO has commenced exchanging information on secret tax deals provided to multinationals by other countries that may contribute to tax avoidance in Australia.

In relation to treaty abuse, the government is taking action to incorporate the OECD's recommendations into our treaty practice. We are also taking further steps to increase public disclosure through the development of a voluntary transparency code by May 2016. That code will enhance public confidence in the tax system and the community's understanding of the tax affairs of large companies. The government is also ensuring that the tax office has unprecedented resources to deal with international tax avoidance. That is very important because adherence to these rules is something that is not cheaply gained. It does require resources and the government has provided an additional $87.6 million to the ATO to investigate international tax avoidance. To date, the program has raised over $400 million in tax liabilities—not bad for an investment of an additional $87 million. The additional investigative and compliance work of the ATO has raised over $400 million, so that is pretty good, and it is estimated that this action by the ATO will raise $1.1 billion in total.

This is a bill that I hope has multi-party support. It is something that, as I say, some of us in this chamber, particularly Senator Heffernan, have been talking about for more than a decade. This is a first step towards addressing those issues and I encourage all senators to support it.