Senator IAN CAMPBELL (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) (5:21 PM) —I was not going to speak again, but I do want to ensure that Senator Murray and all the other honourable senators know that the government have very closely considered this option. It is something that has clearly been considered in detail by the department and the minister. As I said, it is also currently before CASAC, so it is not something that we are being pig-headed about and saying that we are not going to do. It is actually something that we have under close consideration. I certainly did not try to make this point—that we are not going to go ahead with this—in a threatening way. I think it is fair to say that Senator Murray would know better than most that, in terms of previous amendments to the Corporations Law, we have accepted a number of amendments that he has moved, and they have gone into law. Sometimes we have not been entirely happy about those amendments and sometimes it has been a balancing act between what we regard as the negatives of some of the amendments and what we regard as the positives of the rest of the bill. But that is compromise, and that is unfortunately what life in the real world is often about, both outside and inside this place.

We have looked at this option. We believe, and I will quickly reiterate, that the proposed offence in the government's bill extends beyond group companies and related parties. It can apply to any person who enters into an agreement or transaction for the purpose of avoiding or reducing the payment of employee entitlements. The amendment limits recovery to group companies or related parties and will most likely result in a gap. Transactions could be deliberately structured not to involve related parties. We believe it is seriously flawed. We have looked at the amendment closely, and we have had it before us for some weeks, as you know. CASAC, our advisory committee, are looking at it. We are not being dogmatic about this, but I do think it is fair that everybody involved understands the government's position on this, which is that we will not be accepting this amendment at any stage and that insistence on the amendment will obviously have the effect of this proposed legislation not becoming law.