MARK LEVY:
So, let’s get the very latest and get an explanation of this from Stephen Jones, who’s the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services. I’m pleased to say he joins me on the line. Minister, good morning to you.
STEPHEN JONES:
Mark, good to be with you this morning.
LEVY:
Well, you must be aware there’s a serious problem here. It’s a complete dog’s breakfast.
JONES:
Look, I wrote to the Commissioner two days ago and asked him to use whatever discretion that he had to give people more time to get signed up. The good news is that there’s been an enormous take‑up, particularly as the deadline approaches. I think we had about 80,000 people in one single day and we’re about 90 per cent of the way there. But, yes, as your listeners were saying, there has been a fair bit of frustration and there have been, as everyone rushes to the door to try to get it done in a very busy period, there have been system issues and capacity issues. I share the frustration. We want to get this done. There’s an important reason why we’re doing it. It is about ensuring that we have transparency and it is about ensuring that we stamp out problems that have been plaguing the company and the director systems for years around people using false IDs and avoidance of the law and that sort of thing. So, there’s a good reason why we’re doing it. But I’m asking the Commissioner to show some restraint over these next few weeks so that we can get everyone that has tried to do the right thing onboarded and have their IDs provided.
LEVY:
All right. Well, Minister, given that there are issues that you’ve conceded this morning and we still have 700,000 people who haven’t registered, it’s 12 days until this grace period ends, you’re not really going to whack people with a fine from December 14, are you? $13,000, that’s a lot of money.
JONES:
Yeah, look, the Commissioner has discretion on this and if one of your listeners has been, as they’ve been saying, been trying and doing all the right things to get this done, but the systems or for other sorts of reasons, the capacity reasons, they haven’t been able to do it, then, of course, there will be some grace provided in those circumstances. But if you’re just refusing to do the right thing and torn the warning up and thrown it in the bin, then a different sort of attitude will be taken in those circumstances. This is not about whacking people with fines. It is about getting a system up and running. It’s been many years in the making and we want to ensure that we get it done. I guess the problem many of your listeners are finding is that if everyone tried to leave the MCG at the one time, you’re going to have congestion at the gate. If people are trickling through one at a time over several hours, you don’t have the same problem –
LEVY:
Yeah, but at the same time, Minister, you understand the demand and we need to make sure that we’ve got the infrastructure in place to make sure that people can register. I mean, Darren wrote to us. “Director’s ID number, four hours on the computer to finally be accepted by the Government; now told it will take up to 56 days to be purchased.” Richard, “as a director of my own self‑managed super fund, I had to register for a director’s ID. I’ve made multiple attempts with no success.” I mean, you talk about the system issues. Has your department given you a guarantee on when it’s going to be fixed? I mean, will it be today? Will it be over the weekend? Early next week? What are they telling you?
JONES:
They’re telling me a lot of work is going into it. As issues arise, they try to turn at it to try to get congestion or the problems fixed and they’ve been doing that consistently over the last couple of months. I’m not trying to – look, I share the frustration. I’ve got to say I share the frustration of your listeners who are trying to do the right thing. It’s exactly for that reason; people are trying to do the right thing and through no fault of their own, the systems aren’t working for them so we have just got to ensure that we show patience and understand that the overwhelming majority of directors out there are trying to do the right thing and get registered.
LEVY:
All right. Well, it sounds like the issue here is the myGov ID isn’t linking up to the ATO. We’ve had one person saying they spent two hours on the phone to myGov, then another hour to the ATO. They were blaming each other and in the end, they had to delete their myGov and start again. So, if they’re sorting through those issues and they’re going to be fixed relatively quickly, well, that’s a good thing. Before I let you go, Minister, let me get your thoughts on a few other issues. Labor has created a war with the States over a proposal to cap the price on coal. New South Wales and Queensland want compensation. They argue it will hurt exports and have little impact on electricity prices. Are you confident you can even do this?
JONES:
We’re not about trying to pick a war with the States or with gas companies or coal companies. We want to pick a fight with rising electricity prices and we want to ensure that businesses and households get some relief with soaring electricity bills. That’s what it’s all about. We’ll work with the States. It’s not like this conversation started today. We’ve been working through the issues with the States. We want to ensure that we can get this stuff in place. It’s all about lowering power prices to ensure households and businesses get some relief.
LEVY:
If you’re going to work with the States, are you prepared to pay them compensation?
JONES:
We’re going to do the right thing by the States and the Australian people. We’re having conversations with the Ministers, our State‑based Ministers, at the moment to ensure that we can get all the things in place. The end game is to attempt to get some downward pressure on the electricity bills. We know that households are doing it tough. We know businesses are doing it tough. So, I just implore the State Governments, who in many instances have all the levers over coal prices, which have direct input – they control about 80 per cent of energy prices – to have the same concern in mind. This is households, this is businesses. They vote for them as well as voting for us. We want them to bear that in mind as they’re looking at the issues before us.
LEVY:
All right. Well, to be clear, you can’t lower coal prices without the States. So, surely, compensation is on the table. I mean, New South Wales won’t give up a cent.
JONES:
This is got to be a Team Australia moment, Mark, and we’re asking New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, all the State Governments, to put squabbling aside and have the interests of the Australian people in mind. This is about getting power prices down. We know it will work if we all work together and penny‑pinching and arguing who does what or pays for what is not going to get us an outcome. Think about the Australian people. And Domenic Perrottet, he’s got an election to go to in a few months’ time; he should be thinking about that as much as an argument about who pays for what.
LEVY:
All right. Minister, I appreciate your time this morning and to explain the situation with the director identification number. Let’s hope it’s sorted so the 700,000 people can sign up and they’re not sitting in front of a computer screen for hours and on the telephone and everything else. Have a great weekend.
JONES:
Thanks mate.