More than 40 prominent Australians have voiced their frustration at the government’s silence over the Panama Papers leak, signing an open letter to the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull imploring him to act.
“Prime minister, you can outlaw the use of shell companies with concealed ownership and other means of tax avoidance,” the letter, released on Thursday, says.
“You can require multinational companies to be transparent about their activities, so that they can’t avoid their tax obligations. You can scrap secrecy laws that allow accountants and lawyers to help their clients siphon away public money.
“In the face of public outrage at the revelations of the Panama papers, these are easy choices for you to make. You have the power. You have public support. You just have to act.”
The letter has been signed by Tim Costello, the head of World Vision Australia, Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss), and prominent academic Robert Manne, among others.
They claim millions of dollars’ worth of public services are going down the drain as corporate profits are siphoned offshore and say it’s time for “everyone” to contribute their fair share to building a better country.
“It’s time for politicians to promote the wellbeing of all Australians, not the selfish interests of a few,” the letter says.
The Panama Papers were a leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
It exposed an elaborate system of tax havens and fraudulent shell companies that allow the wealthy to hide money from the tax system.
The Australian Taxation Office has identified more than 800 individual Australian taxpayers in the files of Mossack Fonseca, and has launched investigations into some individuals after the disclosure of the data.
That revelation sparked a discussion involving Australia’s major political parties over whether Australia is doing enough to close tax loopholes.
When the leak was first revealed, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, said the government had raised $400m since 2014 after a crackdown on multinational tax avoidance, and he criticised Labor for voting against the Coalition’s multinational tax avoidance bill, which passed in December.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari said the government had only passed legislation on multinational tax avoidance after sustained community pressure, adding that new laws didn’t go far enough.
“They haven’t done anything about individuals’ [tax avoidance],” Dastyari said.
But neither major party is promising to outlaw shell companies that disguise their true beneficial owners, despite the Panama Papers revelation and contrary to pledges made with great fanfare at the Brisbane G20 meeting in 2014.
A spokesman for Turnbull has told Guardian Australia there are no immediate plans to change the current laws.
A special Senate hearing has been called in Canberra on Thursday to respond to the Panama Papers revelations.
Giving evidence at the hearing will be the head of Australia’s Tax Office, Chris Jordan, and representatives from the Tax Justice Network.