2016-12-05
Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, will be attending the white-collar crime Senate Inquiry hearing tomorrow in Melbourne [information below] and will be asking criminologists and regulators, “How tough do we have to make penalties to help stop endemic financial misconduct in Australia’s financial system?”
Senator Whish-Wilson said, “In Iceland, they held the bank Chairmen and CEOs responsible for the fraud and market manipulation that was carried out in their name by the bank staff, during the global financial crisis; and they were sent to jail.
“In Australia, the bank CEOs and Chairmen get to dismiss widespread wrongdoings as the work of a few bad apples and have escaped scandal after scandal without any personal penalty. In fact, some CEOs have been shamelessly trying-on the notion that they deserve customer service bonuses.
“During the last term of Parliament I moved a motion in the Senate to establish an Inquiry into penalties for white-collar crime because there was a recommendation from the earlier ASIC Senate Inquiry to independently examine this issue and this was never acted upon by government.
“Tomorrow, we will hear from the major regulators and expert criminologists about what sort of penalties we need to stem the tide of corporate misbehaviour.
“During the election campaign the Greens were the only party to release a comprehensive policy to increase penalties for fraud and misconduct,” he concluded.
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INQUIRY INFORMATION:
ECONOMICS REFERENCES COMMITTEECriminal, civil and administrative penalties for white collar crime
PUBLIC HEARINGTuesday 6 December 2016Stamford Plaza Melbourne111 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
9.00 am The Justice and International Mission Unit of the Synod of Victoria and TasmaniaDr Mark Zirnsak, Director
9.30 am Institute of Public AffairsMr Darcy Allen, Research FellowMr Andew Bushnell, Research Fellow
10.00 am Law Council of AustraliaMr Greg Golding, Chair, Foreign Corrupt Practices Working Group of the Business Law Section
10.30 am Panel:Dr Juliette Overland, Senior Lecturer, Business Law, University of SydneyProfessor Fiona Haines, Criminology, University of MelbourneProfessor Mirko BagaricMr Theo AlexanderMs Jenny Awad
11.30 am Australian Financial Security AuthorityMr Paul Shaw, National Manager, Regulation and EnforcementMr Andrew Sellars, General Counsel
12.00 pm Australian Shareholders' AssociationMr Stephen Mayne, Director
1.30 pm Attorney General's DepartmentMs Kelly Williams, Assistant Secretary, Criminal Law Policy BranchMr Tom Sharp, Acting Director, Criminal Law Reform SectionAustralian Federal PoliceMrs Elsa Sengstock, Coordinator, Legislation ProgramAssistant Commissioner Ian McCartney, National Manager, Organised Crime and Cyber
2.30 pm Commonwealth Director of Public ProsecutionsMr Shane Kirne, Practice Group Leader, Commercial Financial & CorruptionMs Vicky Argitis, Acting Assistant Director, Legal Business ImprovementMs Fiona Thompson, Practice Group Co-ordinator, Commercial Financial & Corruption
3.00 pm Australian Securities and Investments CommissionMr Tim Mulally, Senior Executive LeaderMr Rowan Davis, Special CounselMr Chris Savundra, Senior Executive Leader
3.50 pm Australian Competition and Consumer CommissionMr Marcus Bezzi, Executive General Manager, Enforcement DivisionMr Nicolas Heys, Director, Enforcement CoordinationMr Ian Lawrence, Director, Law Reform and Competition Advocacy
Media ReleaseTreasury