ASIC urged to show gift list

A MELBOURNE Cup “cocktail afternoon”, tickets to the Australian Open and $719 worth of Haigh’s Chocolates are among gifts and hospitality received by staff at Australia’s corporate and financial regulators.

Gift and hospitality registers, obtained under Freedom of Information, show staff at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission received gift cards up to $150, a theatre ticket, a Luna Park ride pass, wine, novelty cufflinks, $US200 in cash and dinners or lunches with Amazon and Microsoft over the past two financial years.

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority staff received nine boxes of Haigh’s Chocolates worth $719 as a Christmas gift from the Bank of China, two Google Home devices worth $160 each for attending a Gartner conference and a dinner at the Sydney Glass Brasserie with American cyber security company LogRhythm, among other gifts and hospitality.

Crossbench senator Rex Patrick called on ASIC and APRA to make hospitality registers public, particularly in the wake of the banking royal commission.

The Centre Alliance senator said most of the gifts were “quite harmless” but it was concerning ASIC staff accepted invitations to sporting events.

“I’m not suggesting that anyone at APRA or ASIC would be influenced by a $20 box of chocolates as a thank you for something, or a dinner,” he said. “(But) if you are maintaining a register, then you should make it public.

“The benefit of that is that everyone will think carefully about accepting a gift if they know that the public can see it.”

APRA said it would publish its gift register periodically but was yet to set a start date.

ASIC said it was reviewing its policy on gifts and benefits, including “consideration of publication of its gift register”. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said disclosure of registers “was a matter for ASIC and APRA”.

Mr Frydenberg said banking royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne did not recommend any changes to APRA or ASIC’s disclosure but had called for a new oversight body to monitor the regulators, which the Government would establish. “ASIC’s engagement with industry will fall within the remit of this oversight authority,” he said.

An ASIC spokeswoman said “there may be situations where declining a minor gift may cause embarrassment or be impracticable”.

“In these cases, the staff member must declare it as soon as practicable,” she said.

She said $US200 in cash from The World Bank Group was for taxi fares and meals for staff attending a conference. The staff member passed it on to ASIC.

Rex Patrick