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

Mr Acting Deputy President McGrath, I know you're a pretty funky guy, so you're going to be very interested in what I've got to say. Elvis Presley and Bob Marley are alive and well and are in the Australian business registry. Indeed, they are registered as company directors in Australia, as are Homer Simpson and many other colourful characters. The point I'm making is that the reforms in the Commonwealth Registers Bill 2019 and related bills are long overdue. We have a system that is all about easy registration but has never been about identity checking. ASIC have not pulled the wool over anyone's eyes in this respect. They have been totally open and honest that the system was set up to allow easy registration online with no verification, no authentication at all as to who is being registered as a company director in Australia.

There are quite a few interesting aspects to the changes here. I want to make a quick comment in the few minutes I have tonight before we go to the adjournment debate. ASIC made it very clear that the process to change the business registrations online for company directors has been underway for nearly 16 years. For 16 years it has been talked about by parliamentary committees. For 16 years it has been discussed at Senate estimates. For 16 years it has been raised by parliamentarians. I point out to Senator McAllister that it's not just the coalition government that hasn't acted on this. If what ASIC have said is true, this has been going on for a very long time. The Phoenix Taskforce brought together stakeholders like ASIC, the Federal Police, AUSTRAC and the Australian Taxation Office. When that taskforce looked at this issue, there was finally enough momentum to get to the point where we have some legislation before us.

There are 2.7 million company directors listed in this registry. I'm sure many of them are genuine, but we know for a fact that many of them aren't. It has been well reported by the ABC, The Guardian and other media outlets that vulnerable people have been approached and been paid to register as company directors for front groups for dodgy companies, especially companies that go into liquidation without paying their PAYG tax. This has been going on for some time, and I suspect that ASIC are very glad to be passing to the ATO this registry and the whole process of modernising this registry. There are very few regulators anywhere in the world that also look after the business registry. In fact, I think Mr Shipton said that there were only two other countries in the world where the regulators are responsible for maintaining the registry.

This legislation is important because we are going to get a much more robust and authentic system for establishing company director IDs, by issuing a number with an authentication process. That number will be with company directors for life, so you can't just re-register for each business you may be wanting to set up. That number will stay with you for life. That is going to occur at the same time that the registry modernisation project is underway. I believe that the ATO is a good place to have the registry. There are a number of other initiatives that the Greens have been pushing for years in order to get much better transparency in place to avoid illegal and unethical behaviour—phoenixing being just one example.

So this has been a 16-year journey. We know it's going to make a difference to the real problems we have dealt with in committees. There is a whole range of misconduct, particularly around liquidation.

Debate interrupted.