Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Cormann, the Minister representing the Treasurer. On 30 May at Senate estimates I asked the ATO whether Goldman Sachs Australia entities had filed a tax return between 2000 and 2012. I did so on the basis of information I had with good provenance that suggests that they had not for a large part of that period. The ATO refused to answer the question. There's a motion on today's Notice Paper dealing with that refusal.

The tax commissioner is an independent statutory authority, so his views on this don't necessarily reflect those of the government. Is the government of the view that the tax commissioner should protect financial sector entities that have not complied with tax laws or should a legal tax conduct extinguish the privacy rights of a company?