Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne has announced that her party will introduce on October 28 the Corporations Amendment (Publish What You Pay) Bill 2014, which will require reporting of payments made by Australian-based extractive companies to foreign governments on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis.
The bill, applicable to Australian companies involved in industries such as oil, gas, mining, and native forest logging, would require the submission of a financial report by the company and its subsidiaries detailing all payments made to government entities overseas exceeding $100,000. The reports must be in an open and machine-readable format, and would be published by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
“Australia can now join the global push for better transparency in the extractive industries. Around the world countries including the US, Canada, and United Kingdom are all introducing mandatory reporting requirements such as these, coming together to create a global standard,” Milne said in a statement. Release.
