Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note the Australian Greens have proposed a number of amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 relating to the proposed offences for false dealing with accounting documents. The government does not support Senator Whish-Wilson's amendments. The government considers its offences are broad enough to cover false accounting in a range of different contexts. The bill proposes an appropriately broad definition of accounting documents, namely: any account, any record or document made or required for any accounting purpose, or any register under the Corporations Act, or any financial report or financial records within the meaning of the act.

The suggested amendments from Senator Whish-Wilson would seek to amend an existing comprehensive piece of legislation—the Corporations Act—and that act relies on a referral of powers from the states and territories. To adopt amendments to this legislation in haste and without due consideration and consultation with the states and territories, relevant entities and the financial reporting profession could have far-reaching and unintended effects. The suggested Greens amendments also have the potential to add a significant compliance burden on large numbers of small companies without corresponding benefits to their shareholders or other stakeholders.

The government's new offences have been developed following a lengthy period of consultation with Commonwealth agencies as well as certain non-government stakeholders. If Senator Whish-Wilson's amendments were pursued, we would need to consider a similar process for them. We note the proposal to have the Greens amendments commence five months after royal assent of the bill. The government nonetheless believes it is necessary to give more consideration to any such amendments before they are made to ensure they are appropriate, they fit within the current framework of corporate regulation and they do not have costly, unintended consequences.