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

That is true. I learnt that in Senate school. Nevertheless, let me tell you who is misleading the Australian people. There is no transparency in place now. Had the kidnap amendment failed, then yes, the original bill put up by the Labor Party many years ago—and I acknowledged even in my rage this morning that the Labor Party has legacy on this issue, but that has gone because of the failure of this place to make sure we had the numbers to defeat it. We did not. We missed it. I and Senator Xenophon have both admitted publicly that the Senate itself has egg on its face. I have been man enough to admit that we could have done a better job and that the committee had the wool pulled over its eyes by certain front groups who were masquerading as being much bigger representatives than they were in terms of the people who wanted to avoid disclosing their tax and be shielded. We admitted that we got that wrong and that is why we brought the amendment back a few weeks ago and why we are having this debate now.

We need now to discuss why general purpose accounting—which is an amendment legitimately moved by Senator Xenophon—is so critical to this debate. It has been written on by some very good journalists, like Michael West from Fairfax and others, and it is an absolutely critical part of this debate. The government has agreed that this will be included in the legislation. That is a win for tax transparency. Whichever way you look at it, it is a significant win that the largest corporations in the world will be compelled to provide detailed information.