Mr COX (4:46 PM) —The government has not agreed to any of the Labor Party's amendments in the Senate—not one of them. I would like to talk about one of the amendments that was put here when I spoke on the Corporations Amendment (Repayment of Directors' Bonuses) Bill 2002 originally, and that was the amendment which provided for the shareholders of a company to have the opportunity at every annual general meeting to vote on a motion relating to remuneration. This would be a non-binding resolution, but it would give shareholders the opportunity to express their view if they thought that excessive executive remuneration was being paid either to management or to directors, and it would put a very significant psychological brake on management and directors, who would not want to face being negatively assessed at every AGM if they were indulging in practices that could only be described as corporate greed. It seems absolutely incredible to me that the government has decided that it will not give shareholders this right.

Ultimately, shareholders are the owners of companies. If they want to dispose of their assets in particular ways, then generally that is up to them. It is up to the parliament whether they get a tax deduction for some of the ways in which they might want to dispose of some of their assets—they might want to give them away in share options. The government seems quite willing to give companies tax deductions for share option packages, though share option packages do not currently have a tax deduction attached to them. But the Treasurer has come in here on a number of occasions and said that he is contemplating that. Indeed, he believes that, if they are expensed and properly disclosed, it would probably be desirable to give them tax deductability.

The opposition has said very clearly that it will not give them tax deductability; that that only encourages corporate greed. At the end of the day, if shareholders want to give away their capital to management or directors it is up to them. They should be able to express a view on it. At the moment it is very difficult for small shareholders to express that view. It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable to introduce into the corporate law a situation where shareholders have a vote and can express a view, even if it is non-binding. It would be a very significant brake because directors and management would not want to be embarrassed annually by their own shareholders voting on a motion that reports negatively on their greed. It is beyond belief that the government will not support that.

I hope that, in the future, when we have an opportunity to vote on amendments to this legislation, the government will re-examine its position on that. If the government is going to proceed with its intention to provide tax deductability for share option packages then we will have an opportunity to vote on corporate greed again in the relatively near future, because it is going to have to change the law to provide that tax deductability. The opposition was very quick, on the first day that the Treasurer raised this matter, to rule out supporting it. The Treasurer says that he is waiting for the International Accounting Standards Board to come up with appropriate expensing arrangements for share options before he makes a decision on that, but he certainly came into this place and said that, if they were expensed, he was of a mind to make them tax deductable.

(Extension of time granted) The Treasurer was clearly of a mind to provide a tax deduction where one does not now exist for share option packages, which have been one of the biggest areas of excessive remuneration. The Labor Party is absolutely opposed to that. The Labor Party is absolutely in favour of giving shareholders the opportunity, at every annual general meeting, to vote on a motion that would deal with executive remuneration and to say whether they agree to the board's remuneration policies for the management and directors of the company. If the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration chooses to speak again, I would be very interested in him giving his views both on tax deductibility of share options and on the remuneration motion.