Jeff Morris says whistleblowers should be paid for exposing corporate crime

“I think 99 out of 100 people will give up. I say you should do it, but warn them that it will come at a huge cost, to your mental health and your family, and at the end of the day, you will just have the satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing.”

Mr Morris said he was disappointed the federal government had failed to deliver on its promise after the Hayne royal commission to consider paying whistleblowers, and said the federal government was taking more legal action against those prepared to speak out publicly.

Another problem, he said, was the attitude of ASIC itself, which seemed more interested in charging companies fees than properly scrutinizing their conduct.

“You have to be scrappy and ready to take action against corporate crooks. But you didn’t,” he said.

The commission found that ASIC underused its broad powers to enforce corporate law and its actions were “often mild” compared with the severity of the wrongdoing and the damage caused to investors and the broader economy.

ASIC’s funding has been increased by $400 million since the government came to power in 2022, but the committee said the agency should receive more money to strengthen its litigation efforts.

Andy Schmulow, a financial regulation academic at the University of Wollongong, said the Senate report provided a good start to reforming ASIC, which is currently caught in the dual responsibilities of regulating companies and overseeing the financial sector.

Mr Schmullo, who gave evidence to the inquiry, said breaking up the organisation would at least give ASIC the ability to take pre-emptive action without having to rely so heavily on public complaints.

He said the federal attorney general must be more aggressive in bringing criminal cases against companies and the penalties imposed on them must be harsher.

“They have a very high success rate in court. But that doesn’t mean they are doing a good job, it means they are not willing to take any risks,” he said.

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“Right now, the penalties themselves are not enough. The fines are nothing more than $60 parking tickets, and these companies are making tens of millions of dollars.”

The government said it would follow the commission’s investigation but criticised the way the report was prepared and its failure to set out key features of a reformed ASIC’s operations.

Labor committee member Jess Walsh said the inquiry had received useful recommendations that could be used to improve ASIC.

But the inquiry’s chairman, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, said he believed it was clear ASIC had problems.

Changing the structure is the best way to improve its operations, he said.

“You’d have a corporate regulator that enforces corporate law in relation to things like insider dealing. And then you’d have a separate financial services agency that would enforce financial services, including financial advisers and so on,” he told ABC TV.

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