Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

I stand to make a quick contribution to the debate on this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Illegal Phoenixing) Bill 2019. I know what an absolute time bomb this has been, ticking in this nation for many, many years. I know that there's been a great lot of work done by former senator Doug Cameron, and I know how passionate he was. We've all heard of instances in the building industry. But let's not turn a blind eye: this has also been a massive problem in the transport industry, and in the road transport sector predominantly. It's been rife in certain states. I've witnessed it and it's absolutely downright disgraceful—and nobody has given a damn. You have to actually be there: when you find out that a building company or transport company or anyone has gone broke—and I've heard contributions from all senators on this. Unfortunately, it happened in my family, where my brother-in-law's transport company went broke through no fault of his own. So it's a much broader issue that we have to look at.

There is nothing worse than when a transport company or any company goes broke because some mongrel further up the chain has decided they're not going to pay their bills. There is nothing more frustrating when you see those same so-and-sos coming out the next day, as we've heard before, like they're rising from the ashes. And for governments and regulators, it's in their face—it's right there in front of them: these same so-and-sos have stripped companies, refused to pay creditors and refused to pay workers. And no-one cared about it. All of a sudden, we've got the government thinking, 'Maybe we need to be doing something.' You need to go a hell of a lot further. I believe that, in this nation, if you are a director or whatever you may be, and you have blatantly operated while you're insolvent—shifting assets or something like that—and you have not only not paid your contractors and suppliers but also not paid your staff, these should be jailable offences. I think these people are the lowest form of life in the industrial arena; I really do.

I've had instances in my office in Perth, in my previous life, where truckies have come to us or forkies have come to us with absolutely no idea what is happening—the director has disappeared; the manager has disappeared; the manager's wife's BMW has moved out of the parking bay that she's normally had, or they've come back in to collect stuff, but they don't suffer a thing. How in this nation, today, can anyone in this world get up in the morning and think, 'How can I destroy many, many lives through being an absolute mongrel of a'—I was going to say human being, but they're not human beings. So I urge the government: go further. Adopt the Labor amendments. Adopt every amendment. Review this bill. We should be leading by example in this nation and saying, 'If you want to break the laws and create destruction through family breakdowns and destroying businesses, there will be consequences.' And I urge the government: don't stop there. Go a heck of a lot further.