Michael Sukkar MP

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services report No. 1

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, I present the committee’s report No. 1 of the 44th Parliament entitled Statutory oversight of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Takeovers Panel and the corporations legislation.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the committee’s duties as set out in section 243 of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001. The report discusses the committee’s inquiries into:

the activities of the Takeovers Panel and ASIC;
the operation of the corporations legislation; and
ASIC’s 2012-13 annual report.

The committee examined a range of the proposals for reform of the Takeovers Panel. Based on the evidence before it, the committee considers that the Takeovers Panel is working effectively. The committee considers that while a number of the proposals for reform may have merit, the committee is not making any recommendations for changes at this time.

The committee’s examination of ASIC has been undertaken in the context of avoiding unnecessary duplication of the Financial System Inquiry and the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into the performance of ASIC which have coincided with this oversight period. The committee will carefully examine ASIC’s implementation of the government responses to both of those inquiries and will continue its detailed scrutiny of ASIC’s performance in the next oversight report.

The committee considered the penalty regime available to ASIC. The committee encourages the government to follow the recommendations of the Financial System Inquiry and the Senate Economics References Committee and hold an inquiry prior to determining a new penalty regime for ASIC. The committee has recommended that the review of penalties include a broadly based consultation process.