1. Abolish and replace the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC)
Overhaul corporate regulation currently undertaken by ASIC by implementing the recommendations of the Bragg Senate inquiry to abolish ASIC and replace it with a companies regulator and a specialised financial conduct authority. Replace ASIC’s hands-off philosophy of caveat emptor — “let the buyer beware”—which allowed financial misconduct to flourish, with an emphasis on “seller beware”, enforced by criminal prosecutions of financial predators instead of token fines paid by bank shareholders.
2. National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC)
Clearly define NACC’s responsibilities within the cohort of federal agencies so it cannot shirk its duty to improve integrity in governance. The decision by the NACC to not launch a fresh investigation into the robodebt scandal brought nearly 900 complaints, many of which allege corrupt conduct or maladministration by the NACC itself. NACC’s decision was because there already had been an investigation by a royal commission, and five of the six public officials referred to it by the royal commission were also subject to an inquiry by the Australian Public Service Commission. This inter-agency responsibility mismatch and overlap seriously undermines the public’s trust in the NACC and must be fixed.
3. Ban corporate donations — only voters donate
Ban political donations by any corporate entity. Corporations cannot donate shareholders’ funds, and unions cannot donate members’ funds. If individual union members want to donate to a political party, they can donate directly. Anyone who wishes to contribute is free to do so in their own name provided they are citizens of Australia. It is solely the citizens’ responsibility to choose our own government, and such responsibility must be carried out without interference from those that have no right to vote in Australian elections.
4. Put ‘service’ back into public service
Instead of hiring public servants who are genuine about serving the people, the government departments outsource too much work to expensive consultants whose priorities are more billable hours, securing more contracts, and as seen in the PwC scandal giving unfair advantages to their corporate clients. Utilisation of external expertise is necessary from time to time to enable the government to provide better services. But recruiting and retaining genuine public servants must take precedence over outsourcing.
5. Encourage investment in the real economy, discourage financialisation and speculation
The fundamental function of the financial system is to facilitate, serve and improve the real economy which produces real goods and services. Financialisation, on the other hand, is the process of the financial system serving itself, disconnected from any purpose in the real economy. As shown by the global financial crisis 2008 caused by America’s failure to rein in speculation on financial products, financialisation can cause major disruption and destruction of the global economy. Australia must safeguard its economy by implementing prudent financial regulations, as well as co-operate with our key trading partners to boost real and productive economy. The ACP advocates replacing the GST, which is a tax on the real economy, with a 0.1% tax on turnover of foreign exchange speculation (excluding businesses with legitimate reasons), and OTC derivatives speculation, which would raise more than the GST.
6. Return justice to financial victims
Consistent with the human rights principle “Equality of Arms”, establish an independent bank-funded specialist legal aid cell to represent bank victims when they are subject to legal action by a bank. Compel the banks and other financial institutions to fully compensate all their financial victims, including the tens of thousands of cases from the decades before the 2018 banking royal commission. These victims deserve justice, not to have their cases swept under the carpet. Given that many victims have languished in ruin for years, or like the elderly victims of Sterling First are extremely vulnerable, the government should expedite justice by paying the compensation in advance and recouping the funds from the financial institutions through levies.
7. Protect whistleblowers
Transparency is critical to the health of democracy. Whistleblowers help maintain transparency by exposing wrongdoings within the system that are not always visible to the public. The prosecution of Julian Assange, war crime whistleblower David McBride, Timor-Leste bugging scandal whistleblower Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, and ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle shows gross inadequacy in our whistleblower protection law and practice.
In addition to strengthening the Public Interest Disclosure (PID) Act which currently gives very limited options for whistleblowers exposing misconduct in areas related to intelligence and national security, Australia must establish an independent whistleblower commission to provide guidance to would-be whistleblowers to maximise their chance to be protected by the PID Act.
8. A humane, visionary immigration policy
We are a country of immigrants who helped to build Australia into a great nation. Politicising Australia’s immigration policies does nothing to advance Australia’s interests. We must end the institutional mistreatment of asylum seekers and refugees, but the sustainable way forward is to help the Global South achieve real economic development through international cooperation.
For the sake of Australia’s future, we must return to a visionary immigration policy that welcomes people of all faiths and races, through long-term intake planning not just to ensure our infrastructure is capable of supporting the increased population, but also to encourage immigrants to settle all across regional and rural Australia, which is crying out for population growth, and not just in two or three major capital cities. With this approach, Australia could maintain a high immigration rate, but spread out across Australia the population growth would be almost imperceptible.
