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

I apologise; I was clicking my raise-hand icon on the screen, but I now realise I had to do it physically as well.

I think Senator Seselja's description of the word 'debate' the last time this came before the Senate was a very liberal interpretation of what was discussed in the chamber. There was no debate about the removal of this exemption, this 25-year loophole that has protected some of the richest Australians and biggest private companies from providing any tax transparency data. There is no policy basis for this. I would like to get on record today that the Greens would have supported a vote had it gone to division. We would have supported Senator Patrick's amendment.

I'd also like to place on record that the Senate inquiry, and I'd like to use the words 'groundbreaking Senate inquiry', that was initiated in 2015 was indeed initiated by the Greens. My previous colleague Christine Milne initiated that inquiry. I participated in all those inquiries, and we have seen significant legislation before this Senate; that is true. I will acknowledge that, which Senator Seselja added in his contribution earlier. However, it is a considerable anomaly that we have actually acted on various aspects of multinational tax avoidance but not this. This stands out like a sore thumb. I think I used a different analogy last time that may have been reported in the media, but, at the end of the day, the government has not provided any explanation to this chamber—this august house of review—as to why this loophole exists to protect the richest Australians. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that many of these people are indeed donors to the Liberal Party and that there's a reason, that there's some kind of cosy arrangement in place as to why this exemption hasn't been removed.

So this is something that we have worked on for many years. Indeed, I moved very similar amendments to what we have before the Senate today on numerous occasions, including two to three years ago when we had other debates around tax transparency. I would urge the government and Senator Seselja to remove this exemption. I understand Senator Patrick won't be giving up after today's amendment. We will see future amendments tacked onto a number of Treasury bills. I would also urge the government to respond to that 2015 Senate inquiry and the very numerous recommendations that it made. We have made progress, but we've got a hell of a long way to go before we can be confident that we've done everything we possibly can, as a chamber and as a parliament, to crack down on multinational tax avoidance and improve tax transparency.