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

I will just add that there have been numerous occasions when I have been in the Senate and heard the excuse that we need to go away to consult with the states and go through this process of hand-passing the football somewhere else. The role of the Senate as a house of review is to suggest amendments—amendments that are sensible and that improve the legislation. What we are asking for here is eminently sensible, and I cannot see any unintended consequences of asking corporations to keep a record of their transactions. Most companies do so; if they do not, then you would have to wonder what their transactions are. Senator Collins, further down today's Senate schedule we will be looking at the Tax Laws Amendment (Implementation of the Common Reporting Standard) Bill 2015, and I hope that you will not be moving any amendments this afternoon to that bill on the same grounds that you have just given—that it is late in the process and this kind of thing should not be done as a matter of process. I will be very surprised if you do that, following what you have just told us.