'An investigation is underway and no further comment will be made.' Changes to secrecy laws on the tableĭuring Senate Estimates, Greens senator Barbara Pocock declared the current rules were not fit for purpose.

'On Wednesday, a report of crime was provided to the AFP relating to this matter for the first time,' the statement said. The AFP said in a statement it would not outline the details of what would be examined. Last week the AFP launched an investigation after Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy asked the AFP to consider a criminal investigation into the firm's former head of international tax, Peter-John Collins. 'The AFP assessed, based on the material that the ATO provided, was that there was insufficient information in the material, to support a formal referral.' 'A set of representative sample documents were provided to the AFP. 'The ATO sought advice on whether there was sufficient information to make a formal referral of the matter to the AFP for investigation,' it said. In a statement, the AFP said the ATO requested advice in relation to the potential misuse of government information by PwC. 'After a year's consideration, there was insufficient information to move.' 'It is fair to say that the information in our possession was indicative that there may have been an offence but, after a year's consideration, this was not a frivolous decision,' he said. Mr Hirschhorn said a joint decision between the AFP and the tax office was made not to press ahead with a police investigation looking into PwC in 2019. 'Insufficient information' to support formal referral to AFP 'We expressed general concerns to Treasury but due to secrecy we could not share specific information or share specific concerns,' he said. The ATO's Jeremy Hirschhorn said that was because the agency was not allowed to do so. While the laws allowed some information to be provided to the AFP in 2018, the matter was never discussed with Treasury. 'It's very restrictive, and one would have to question if that's the right situation for the future.' 'It's a necessary thing in 99 per cent of cases, but clearly this is an example where maybe we should have been able to disclose that at least to Treasury. 'It comes back to the restrictive nature of our secrecy provisions - it is an offence under our laws for us to provide information that we are not allowed to do so by law,' Mr Jordan said.

Into thebreach