The showpiece of Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to tackle white collar crime and multinational tax evasion may not be ready before the next election.
The government has failed to set a timeframe for the establishment of a register of beneficial company owners in its open government action plan released on Wednesday. The plan notes that work on the register will continue into 2018 and potentially beyond.
Such a register would make it easier to identify companies - and owners - who ultimately benefit in multinational corporate structures.
Labor’s assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh said this was proof the government had no intention of cracking down on multinational tax avoidance.
“The government has been crab-walking away from its commitment to establish the register since almost the very moment it made it in April this year,” he said.
"Every dollar we lose through multinational tax evasion is a dollar less that we can invest in infrastructure projects, schools and hospitals."
In September, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told G20 leaders that Australia was consulting on setting up such a register.
“The UK has recently set one up so that anyone can see where the profits from corporates really end up,” he said.
The open government plan states the G20 High Level Principles on Beneficial Ownership Transparency are a "legacy item" of Australia’s 2014 G20 presidency.
The failure to set a date around the beneficial ownership register in its "national action plan" released on Wednesday contrasts with other deadlines the Government has given itself that stretch into 2019.
The government pledges to produce Australia’s first extractive industries transparency report at the end of 2018 and implement anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing reforms in 2019.
The end date for the commitment for the beneficial ownership register in the plan was labelled as “expected to continue for the duration of this plan”. The plan covers the period to 2018.
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In April, Revenue and Financial Service Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said "there needs to be a registry of beneficial ownership in our country”.
Also in April, partner at corporate law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, Mark Leibler, called the establish of a public register was a “gross over-reaction” to recent high-profile tax avoidance matters.
"If there needs to be a register [to boost tax transparency] then by all means have a register, but a public register? So the public at large could have access to this?”, he told the Financial Review.
"I don't understand the logic for that and I think it would amount to a serious invasion of privacy."
Roman Lanis and Brett Govendir from the University of Technology Sydney have argued making the register public is important for tackling corporate tax evasion.
The open government plan makes no mention of public access to the register. The G20 Principles on Beneficial Ownership state that "competent authorities" such as tax and law enforcement bodies should be given access.
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