The majority voted in favour of disagreeing with an amendment introduced by Deakin MP Michael Sukkar (Liberal), which means it failed.

Rebellion

Bass MP Bridget Archer (Liberal) crossed the floor to vote "Yes" while the rest of the Liberal Party voted "No."

Amendment text

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes:

(a) the Coalition introduced the Cashless Debit Card to protect vulnerable communities reducing the amount of welfare payments available to spend on alcohol, gambling and illegal drugs;

(b) since the Cashless Debit Card program commenced more than $988 million has been spent using cashless debit card accounts; participants making more than 20 million approved transactions with over $273 million spent where the primary business is food;

(c) the harm and hardship the Government's abolition of the Cashless Debit Card has caused some of Australia's most vulnerable communities;

(d) the Government's hypocrisy by reintroducing the Cashless Debit Card and rebranding it the SmartCard with the new card supported by the same provider Indue;

(e) the Government has committed over $217 million of taxpayers' funds to this expensive rebranding exercise;

(f) the Government has failed to provide details of the total cost to taxpayers of the new SmartCard; and

(g) the Government's rushed and total mismanaged transition to the SmartCard; and

(2) calls on the Government to without delay, reverse its decision to abolish the Cashless Debit Card program and stop the alcohol-fuelled violence, drug abuse, and childhood neglect in our most vulnerable communities".

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Watson MP Tony Burke (Labor) that:

That Mr Rae be granted an extension of time.

The majority voted in favour of disagreeing with a motion introduced by Moncrieff MP Angie Bell (LNP), which means it failed. The motion was a gagging order which would have prevented Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon (Labor) from speaking any further in this debate.

Motion text

That the Member be no longer heard.

The majority voted in favour of a motion "That the requested amendments be agreed to." Because this vote was successful, the bill has now been passed in its final form by both house of parliament and so will now become law.

What were the requested amendments?

Whitlam MP Stephen Jones (Labor) explained that:

The bill comes back to us in substantially the same form as it was presented to the House by the government, with one amendment, which I'll explain to members of the House now. It removes a long-standing exemption in our corporation laws which has existed since 1995 that exempts certain large private companies that existed prior to 1995 from public disclosure of an audited annual report to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the provision of tax data to the Australian tax office, which could then be made public.

During question time a number of questions were asked of the Prime Minister and the government which went to the importance of transparency in corporate affairs. I'd expect, given the tenor of those questions, that members of the coalition will rise and support the government in removing these exemptions from corporations and taxation law. They go to the heart of transparency. They ensure that all large private companies are treated in exactly the same way. They must present to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission an audited copy of an annual report, and they must provide certain information to the tax commissioner, which would be treated in the same way as any other private company's tax information. These are simple, straightforward amendments.