Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I would like to share with the House a very sad story of how the system has let down a long-suffering family, the Lunn family. The Lunn family were part owners of 100 shares in Cardiff Coal Company. The Cardiff Coal Company was the proprietor of 221 acres of valuable land on the foreshore of Lake Macquarie. In the 1980s the family realised that the Carter Coal Company had been taken over by a person named Leslie Herbert Savage, who had actually fraudulently fiddled with the ownership of the shares. This was dealt with in the Supreme Court and went as far as the High Court. The decision was found in favour of the Lunn family. I must emphasise that the Lunn family are basically pensioners. They spent practically every last cent they had taking this case to the High Court. Despite the fact that it was established that they had this ownership right, they have never been able to cash in on it or be able to benefit from their ownership.

The land on the foreshore of Lake Macquarie was subsequently sold to a developer, who developed the land. Lake Macquarie City Council spent $6 million buying part of that land to create a wonderful foreshore park. But still these pensioners battle for justice. They have battled for justice all the way along. They started their proceedings in 1980 and it was decided by the court in the mid-1990s. So you can imagine the enormous financial impost this had on the family. I have been closely associated with the Lunn family over this period of time, giving them support and contacting the various authorities along the way, but no matter how hard you work and how many people you contact there seems to be this wall that prevents them from succeeding.

The area I am particularly concerned about is the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, because they have refused to investigate this issue. They have washed their hands of it and declined to investigate it. Leslie Savage has avoided prosecution for breaches of even other corporate laws. The simple fact that we cannot get ASIC to investigate this family has just added another layer to the disservice and to the fact that the Lunn family have ended up without any financial compensation for ownership in a company that subsequently sold land—and there was an enormous profit.

There are questions that I would like to ask. Are there in the ASIC legislation any barriers that prevent ASIC from fulfilling its legislative responsibility and obligation? Does the accountability framework to which ASIC is subject need to be strengthened? If so, I would like the government to act on it. Can the workings of ASIC's collaboration and working relationship with other regulators and law enforcement bodies be pulled in? What are ASIC's complaints management policy and practice? What are the protections afforded by ASIC to corporate and private whistleblowers? That last comes in very strongly in this case. What other barriers exist that prevent justice for the Lunn family?