DOCUMENTS

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (16:37): I seek leave to make a short statement. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator GALLAGHER: The government does not support this motion.

We support scrutiny of the Digital Seller Underperformance Policy, which we brought in, and we'll continue to respond to questions on its operation. The motion would require the names of businesses, including small businesses, to be tabled in the Senate. This would effectively create a 'name and shame' register, which could cause significant reputational damage before businesses have had the opportunity to work with government to improve their performance under the scheme.

Seventy-two per cent of digital marketplace sellers are small businesses, and 67 per cent of all digital and ICT sellers across all panels are small businesses. This policy was designed with safeguards for businesses that want to do the right thing and improve their performance. These safeguards give business a chance to remediate issues and improve them, while this motion would require them to be named, and named permanently, in the Senate.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The question is that notice of motion No. 705 in the name of Senator Payman be agreed to.