Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Cash, for that contribution. The government will be supporting amendments (1) and (3). Under the deferred prosecution agreement scheme proposed by the former government, companies engaged in serious corporate crime, including foreign bribery, would have been able to negotiate a fine, agree to a set of conditions and have their cases put on indefinite hold, subject to compliance with that agreement. The government will entertain the introduction of a deferred prosecution scheme only after the measures introduced by this bill have been implemented and given time to work.

We do, however, support amending the bill to include a statutory review provision whereby the amendments made by this bill will be reviewed after 18 months. A review will ensure that the measures introduced and debated today can be assessed after an appropriate period and guarantee that companies engaged in serious criminal wrongdoing, like foreign bribery, feel the full force of the law.

I thank senators from the Australian Greens and Senator Pocock as well, who have indicated that they will support the review mechanism. The bill, with these amendments, shows the government's commitment to tackling corruption and, in particular, ensuring that our laws are effective in detecting, investigating and prosecuting foreign bribery.