Partners at the consulting giant PwC who were involved in misusing confidential government information about tax reforms will likely be named publicly, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers says.
Key points:
- Jim Chalmers said he was "ropeable" about PwC misusing confidential information
- Representatives of the Tax Practitioners Board were questioned at Senate Estimates
- The treasurer said PwC partners who have been put on leave would be named "in time"
RBA Governor Philip Lowe also told Senate Estimates the company should name the partners involved to rebuild public confidence.
Representatives from the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) – the regulator that deregistered former PwC partner Peter Collins as a tax practitioner and banned him for reapplying for two years – were questioned by senators on Wednesday.
They told the committee the TPB had asked PwC for a list of the nine partners it has put on leave while it conducts an internal investigation, albeit with an external consultant.
"We have not had an answer as yet," TPB secretary Michael O'Neill said.
On the ABC's 7.30 program, treasurer Jim Chalmers was asked if he agreed that the partners should be named.
"I think that will happen in time," Mr Chalmers said.
He said it "remains to be seen" how long it would take, but referenced a "number of processes underway".
The treasurer told 7.30 that while he had already moved to increase the powers of the Tax Practitioners Board, he would "consider doing more" in response to the scandal.
Mr Chalmers said he was "really worried about what we've seen at PwC" and had been "ropeable" about the scandal since the news broke.
"I am personally, the government, I think the country is absolutely filthy about what's happened with PwC. We want to be able to consult in good faith with the business community on changes that have the capacity to affect them," he said.
"We cannot have a repeat of this absolutely appalling episode, where people were monetising government secrets."
Flatmates the answer to rising rents?
The RBA governor was also questioned about rising rents, saying they were driven by underlying issues of "supply and demand".
On the supply side, he said the rate of new housing construction was well behind population growth. Vacancy rates were at historically low levels, he said.
On demand, he said the average number of people living in each home had gone down during the pandemic as people were more likely to choose to use a spare room as a study, rather than having an extra housemate.
This had increased the demand for the total number of dwellings, Mr Lowe said.
But he said rising rent prices would make people "economise" on their housing costs.
"Kids don't move out of home because the rents are too expensive, or you decide to get a flatmate or a housemate. Because that's the price mechanism at work: we need more people on average to live in each dwelling, and prices do that," Mr Lowe told Estimates.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers was asked about the governor's comments.
"Well, look, I thought the point that Governor Lowe was making today was that we need more housing supply in our economy, I think that's self evident," Mr Chalmers said.
"The fact that rents are rising faster than we'd like is really a key motivation for the biggest increase in Commonwealth rent assistance in three decades, which was in the Budget."
Mr Chalmers said the government needed to act on "two fronts", by doing what it could to increase supply while also taking the "edge off" with the assistance for people on low incomes.
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2023-05-31 10:34:04Z
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