Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the following matter be referred to the Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by the last sitting day in March 2011:

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s subsidiaries, Note Printing Australia and Securency, with particular reference to:

(a)

allegations of payments to overseas agents into offshore tax havens and corruption in securing note printing contracts and what the Reserve Bank of Australia, Austrade and the Australian Government knew about the alleged behaviour; and

(b)

action which may be taken to prevent improper dealings occurring again.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Age on Saturday, through the work of its investigative unit and after some years of revelations related to the Securency subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia, had the extraordinary front page information that a cache of confidential Securency documents obtained by the Age revealed that this Reserve Bank of Australia firm wired $5.8 million in suspected bribe money to a mysterious company in the Seychelles in early August last year, 10 weeks after a police investigation began into previous allegations against this Reserve Bank subsidiary. Two months later, in September, a further $1.5 million was wired by Securency to the tax haven account. The documents reveal that up to $23 million in suspected kickbacks was paid by Securency to win currency contracts in Nigeria. Further on, the article says:

The RBA has failed to respond to questions from The Age about why it allowed the extraordinarily high-risk business practices - which should have been detected in any routine audit - to continue in the face of a police bribery investigation.

The way Securency moved its money has been described by a government source as ‘‘a classic money-laundering technique that you expect from a sophisticated criminal syndicate, not a Reserve Bank company’’.

These are extraordinary allegations, they are front page and they include comment from a government source. They should be investigated by this Senate, and I expect that the opposition and the government will support the Greens in ensuring that this investigation gets under way. The primary question here is: where is the due diligence of the Reserve Bank? It is missing.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Bob Brown’s) be agreed to.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the following matter be referred to the Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by 17 December 2010:

The decision of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to oppose the proposed acquisition of the Franklins supermarket business by Metcash Trading Limited, with particular reference to:

(a)

the basis of the ACCC decision to oppose the proposed purchase;

(b)

the competition impacts of the decision at the retail and wholesale levels;

(c)

whether the Franklins’ distribution warehouses, supplying eight franchised stores, could be regarded as an independently sustainable wholesale business; and

(d)

any other related matters.

Question agreed to.