Senator BROWN(6.48 p.m.) —I simply want to endorse the points made by Senator Margetts. She has covered the field extremely well. The Australian Greens take the same point of view. She foreshadowed for me—and I thank her for that—the amendment to the motion that the report of the committee be adopted at the end of the day. The amendment would lead to information about the huge amount of money—currently $680 million per annum if you do not include the so-called gravedigging provisions—that goes to the corporate sector as a result of the research and development tax concessions. It is effectively money which is given to the corporations. It is a benefit they get that other corporations do not. It is analogous to the diesel fuel rebate. It ought to be seen as government expenditure. But I know there is very great concern in the government about the amount of money that is being spent in this way and about the way in which it is being spent. That is why this part of the legislation is before the Senate tonight. I will be moving a return to order which would provide the Senate with information about the concessions: the name of each company, its registered address, a brief description of each research activity for which a concession is given, the total cost to government revenue of the concession for each research activity, and the cost of the components of the research activity, for example, the feedstock and the core technology.

I hope the Senate will support that amendment because whatever the outcome of the debate tonight, it would mean that we are much better informed when this issue comes up next time around—and it is going to. I expect we might even have the government considering whether or not it should support this amendment. I hope the government is looking closely at it. I do not know whether the government has got a crystal ball so that it knows whether this legislation will go through tonight. I think the government would be in a much stronger position to argue its case next time round if it had this information. After all, information is the currency of democracy. If we were enlightened, we would be in a much richer position to make a more democratic decision on this matter next time round.