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

I just want to make a brief contribution to this. Like others in the chamber, the Greens want to get home to our families, friends and others tonight. The substantial legislation around the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 5) Bill 2017 and the ASIC Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy Amendment Bill has already passed the Senate. At the risk of being overly simplistic, these bills are tweaking the edges, but they're making necessary changes. I just want to put on record that the Greens will be supporting the bills. We are looking at Labor's amendments at the moment.

I also wanted to put on record that the Greens have been a part of this process. In 2014, the Senate Economics References Committee had a very important investigation into ASIC. I think that's been one of the defining moments of the Senate since I've been here in the last six years. I was part of that particular inquiry. Before Senator Williams leaves the chamber, I would like to also recognise the contribution he made. In fact, he asked me to join that committee and inquiry, and I did. Not only did we get the recommendation that we needed a cost recovery model for ASIC—and this is hopefully the end of that, and we've achieved that in four years—but much more came out of that inquiry. It was an inquiry that, although it started as an inquiry into ASIC, ended up being an inquiry into Commonwealth Bank. Later, that snowballed and cascaded into the action that we've taken in this place on the banks in the last five years. We saw a scandal at the Commonwealth Bank—clear fraud, misconduct and unethical behaviour—and the Senate Economics Committee made an unprecedented recommendation. I think we needed a royal commission just into the Commonwealth Bank.

The Greens campaigned on getting a royal commission into the banking and financial services sector back in 2015. We also had a really in-depth and very troubling inquiry into forestry managed investment schemes, which also showed the need for a royal commission into the banks. Why? Because we needed the coercive powers and the resources of a royal commission. The Senate did a fantastic job over numerous inquiries looking into financial misconduct. At the end of the day we can highlight these things but we seldom compel witnesses, search premises or documents, or even compel documents. These are the kind of things I hope the royal commission will look at.

I want to get it on record today that the Greens are very happy to have played a part in this legislation and in getting this here today, as well as the push that this chamber has made. I would recognise that the changes to the FOFA legislation around a similar time were also pivotal. You could almost feel the wind change in this place when the FOFA disallowance regulations came up. I compliment Labor on leading that disallowance, and we were happy to play a part in that. That took a lot of organisation and it was a really important moment in actually cracking down on financial misconduct in this country and getting some laws and regulations in place. That's all I'll say today because I understand that we need to move on. But we've been a big part of this, and it's a good example of the Senate working together to get good legislation.