Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Labor will not be supporting this amendment. This amendment seeks to replace the current tiered penalty regime under the BEAR with a sliding scale of penalties. We note that submissions to the Senate inquiry into this bill stated that the maximum penalties under the government's bill are a greater proportion of the size of small and medium ADIs compared to the large banks. However, this amendment ties the penalties to what seems an uncertain definition of what the banks' assets are. This would lead to uncertainty over applicable penalties for individual ADIs. While we note the intent to have penalties set at a more proportionate level, an effect of the formula in this amendment will be to significantly increase penalties for many small and medium ADIs. This could have an impact on the ability of these small and medium ADIs to compete.