Catherine Tanna is an RBA board member and the managing director of EnergyAustralia.Credit: Peter Braig
Ms Tanna is a director of the Business Council of Australia,a member of Chief Executive Women and a former chairwoman of British multinational BG Australia and has been managing director of EnergyAustralia since 2014.
She was appointed to the RBA board in 2011 by former treasurer Wayne Swan and the term was extended by five years by Joe Hockey. She has one year left in the role under her current term.
Senator Patrick has now demanded she resign from the role,saying there was"a deeply shameful side to Ms Tanna's career,something quite at odds with her standing as a business leader"due to the amount of tax EnergyAustralia paid. There is no suggestion EnergyAustralia or Ms Tanna have acted unlawfully.
EnergyAustralia is wholly foreign-owned as a subsidiary of Hong Kong's China Light and Power,he said,before taking a swing at low levels of tax paid by the company in Australia.
Senator Patrick said that in 2017-18,EnergyAustralia reported $8 billion in generated income to the Australian Tax Office and a taxable income of $368 million. The tax paid was $69 million,or about 1 per cent of total income. The senator said in the four years prior EnergyAustralia reported $30 billion in income,$52 million in taxable income and zero payable tax.
"That's EnergyAustralia's tax story – four years of zero tax,then just a pittance paid,"he said."It's tax dodging on a grand scale."