John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Following on from Senator Whish-Wilson, I find it a little ironic that the Greens are following Israel. That's something different! Anyway, I rise to support the Treasury Laws Amendment (Banking Executive Accountability and Related Measures) Bill 2018. I wish we didn't have to. I sincerely wish this legislation was not in front of us, but there have been many problems.

Can I start by saying that when Senator Cameron made his contribution he was saying how the government would not support a royal commission. I remember back in 2013 when Senator O'Neill was in government and Senator Cameron was in government. It was actually Senator Cameron who came to me during Senate estimates when I asked Mr Peter Kell, the deputy chair of ASIC, 'Mr Kell, why did it take you 16 months to pay attention to the whistleblower Jeff Morris and the ferrets from Commonwealth Financial Planning?' Mr Kell said, 'We got a great result. We got an enforceable undertaking.' I said, 'I didn't ask what sort of results you got; I asked why did ASIC take 16 months to act?' He said, 'The enforceable undertaking is working really well.' I turned to the chair, Mark Bishop, a former Labor Western Australian senator and a good bloke, and said, 'Chair, how do you get an answer out of these people?' And the then senator Mark Bishop said, 'Well, Senator Williams, I can't tell them how to answer their questions, and we'll leave it at that.' I think the chair had a few words to ASIC after that, but Senator Cameron came in behind me. I remember him saying, 'Mr Kell, don't give me the run-around like you gave Senator Williams; I can give you the drum now.' Senator Cameron went right off at them, and we had a chat outside the room. It was Senator Cameron's idea that we have an inquiry into ASIC and how they perform—how they do their job.

I've been frustrated with ASIC for many years around liquidators' issues and things that I thought people were doing wrong and were never brought to account for. ASIC were too slow to move, and so on. We did that through the whole liquidators' inquiry, where we recommended stripping the management of liquidators—the insolvency practitioners—off ASIC. Anyway, we had the inquiry, and what did that inquiry recommend through Senator Bishop? It recommended a royal commission. Who was in government? The Labor Party was in government. Did they endorse the recommendations of the committee? No, of course they didn't. Yet, Senator Cameron stands here now and says, 'We've been pushing for the royal commission for years.' No, when you were in government you had the opportunity and the recommendation from the Economics References Committee.

We should have had this years and years ago. I remember the Greens and Senator Whish-Wilson moving motions that the Senate call for a royal commission into the banking industry. I crossed the floor. I sat over there with you.