Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015

The majority voted against a very controversial amendment introduced by NSW Labor Senator Sam Dastyari.

What was the amendment?

The amendment insisted that Australian companies with a total annual income of $100 million or more should have to report certain tax information so it becomes public. That information includes the company's ABN, its total annual income, its taxable income and its tax payable.

The Coalition Governmnet opposed this amendment and said the threshold should be $200 million.

Why was it so controversial?

Even though the Greens Party earlier agreed with the Labor Party that the threshold should be $100 million, they made an agreement to vote with the Coalition Government and reject this amendment. They did this because they thought it was better than nothing. Read ABC News for more information.

The Labor Party were not pleased.

Some choice insults from Labor to the Greens

"Sell-out rats!" said Senator Stephen Conroy.

"Sell-out Greens." agreed Senator Sue Lines.

"Spineless!" continued Senator Conroy.

"Sell-outs!" repeated Senator Lines.

"Absolute bunch of amateurs." contributed Senator Doug Cameron.

Through it all, Greens Senator Richard Di Natale kept trying to explain why the Greens were voting against the amendment (and therefore voting with the Coalition Government) - here is a taste of his explanation.

Meanwhile, the Chairman warned the angry interrupting senators that:

"I can at this point advise senators that I have cancelled my flight tonight. So I am in no hurry to finish this, but we will finish this with the Senate having some order."

Read the whole argument after 6:53 pm.

What does the bill do?

The bill strengthens the laws against tax avoidance for certain companies. For example, it introduces anti-avoidance measures to deal with multinational companies with an annual global income of more than $A1 billion that use schemes to avoid having to pay tax in Australia or at least reduce that tax to a minimum.

To learn more about the bill, see the bills digest.