Kelly O’Dwyer, chairwoman of the House Economics Committee, said at the Bloomberg Summit in Sydney today of the FIRB that it:
‘‘…has demonstrated that they have not been doing their job in that regard…In order to give confidence to people you have to have a regime that will be property enforced…FIRB said that we think everybody is complying a little bit better. I think that defies credibility…We are looking at a civil penalty regime that would apply to people who contravene the rules. We are actually looking at a sliding scale that would attach to the value of the property when people contravene the current rules in place.’’
So, we have a regime of restrictions that aren’t being policed. The answer is not therefore to change the restrictions, it’s to boost the policing.
Who will police FIRB, Ms O’Dwyer?
