Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026

Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (13:27): In regard to the government amendment to this legislation, I want to place on the record the Greens support for it. It reduces the disallowable period from 15 to five days for the instrument, which determines which sectors of the financial services sector have to pay the top-up levy for the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort each year.

It wasn't expected, obviously, when the CSLR was legislated that it would routinely exceed the levy and require an annual top up, but, because of the way the scheme is structured and a number of recent collapses, including First Guardian and Shield, the CSLR has significantly exceeded the annual levy every year, and this year the top up amount is over $170 million.

We understand that shortening the disallowance period for the top-up levy is necessary to ensure that people impacted by financial misconduct and fraud are able to be compensated as quickly as possible. We are very conscious that many people have lost their entire retirement savings and any CSLR compensation will be a lifeline for them. We're not going to get in the way of people receiving their compensation.

We want that to happen, and we want that to happen as quickly as possible. However, we do not support indefinitely reducing parliamentary scrutiny of the instrument, and that is why we pushed the government to include the sunset provision, which we are pleased that they have included, so that the shorter disallowable period is only in place for a finite time.

We also call on the government to prioritise reforms to stop a collapse like First Guardian and Shield, which has impacted so many people, happening again. The TEMPORARY CHAIR ( Senator Sterle ): As it is 1.30 pm, the committee will report to the Senate. I'm going to commence the two-minute statements now.