Senator MURRAY (4:32 PM) —As a general proposition the opposition certainly is aware—and perhaps the government is—of our view that white-collar crimes and penalties have tended to be of a lesser order than those crimes and penalties which attach under criminal law, normally. We have consistently been concerned, especially when we look at the ASIC reports. They do very good work on getting somebody in before the courts, and the law itself provides a fairly modest penalty. We should recognise that the principle of judicial discretion means that, unless a penalty is mandated, a judge or magistrate will invariably look at a legislative penalty as a maximum. So, if you have a low amount, you end up with perhaps an even lower penalty being applied. I would think, and the mover of the amendment can correct me if I am wrong, that these penalties in fact represent maximums. They do not represent the amount which would ordinarily or automatically be applied. Therefore, if I am correct in my understanding, I think that these increases in penalties as maximums are probably warranted.