 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Australian Regulatory Compliance Review
Australian Technology and IP Business
Credit Union and Mutual Law
National Consumer Credit Reform
Personal Property Securities Australia
Longview Business Insights
Australian Private Health Insurers
Wills, Trusts, Super
Mutuals Resource Centre
Commonwealth legislation
Corporate Governance
Not-for-Profit links
Regulator Links
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released revised prudential standards and
guidance notes to reflect its prudential approach to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs). The changes have been finalised
after extensive industry consultation. They take effect on 1 July 2006.
Print This Post
ASIC has reissued its guide on breach reporting by AFS licensees. It now includes a new section explaining how ASIC handles breach notifications. It also covers the factors ASIC takes into account in deciding what, if any, further action to take and what licensees can do to reduce the need for ASIC to take further action.
ASIC has also released a new template form (form FS80) for lodging written breach reports. Use of the form isn’t compulsory, but it will help licensees identify the information ASIC needs.
Print This Post
The recent Report of the Taskforce on Reducing the Regulatory Burdens on Business – Rethinking Regulation mentioned the burden of record-keeping in areas such as the GST, payroll tax, company tax, worker’s compensation, superannuation, Australian Workplace Agreements, privacy, occupational health and safety and food safety.
The Business Council of Australia submitted that "Each piece of new regulation may, when proposed in isolation, look reasonable. The overall effect, however, can be a considerable regulatory burden."
The Task Force concluded:
The key to reducing the record-keeping and reporting burden lies both within and across agencies and will depend on collaboration to rationalise the reporting and data requirements. This approach, however, is foreign to the way government conducts itself, as each agency has autonomous power to determine what will be recorded and reported, different reporting periods and seemingly different outcomes in mind. It is also very likely that departmental funding and accountabilities are based solidly on data collection, reporting and compliance monitoring.
Task Force Recommendation 6.3 was :
The Australian Government should develop and adopt a business reporting standard within the Australian Government sphere by 2008, based on the Netherlands model and work undertaken by the ATO. COAG should consult with state and territory governments to extend this approach to state, territory and local governments as soon as practical thereafter.
Whether this is achievable without radical change is doubtful: for example, the recent WorkChoices legislation and the draft Anti-Money Laundering Bill both contain extensive record retention obligations.
I’ve compiled a table of record retention obligations (pdf UPDATED July 2009) under various Commonwealth and State Acts. Does anyone want to add to it?
UPDATE: When is a document retention policy really an unlawful document destruction policy?
Print This Post
The proposed second period of consultation on the draft anti-money
laundering reform package will now commence in mid-June according to the Minister
for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison.
The first round of consultations has ended with the
Government receiving more than 120 submissions. The Senate Legal and Constitutional
Committee Inquiry into the Exposure Draft of the Anti-Money Laundering
and Counter-Terrorism Bill 2005 delivered its report (pdf) in April.
Developing an anti-money laundering compliance program
Print This Post
Web Seminar:Tuesday 6 June 2006
at 11am -12 noon Australian Eastern Time
The Financial Services Regulation provisions of the Corporations Act
require financial service providers to be licensed and comply with
strict disclosure obligations.
In this 60 minute live web seminar David Jacobson will discuss FSR developments since 11 March 2004 and refinements which affect your day to day procedures.
The seminar will discuss integrating the refinements in your
existing FSR compliance program and how ASIC is currently administering
the laws.
Responsible officers can treat the seminar as part of their training obligation.
You will learn about:
Who should attend:
The hour-long Web seminar includes a question and answer session.
This is an important FSR update you and your staff need to know.
Print This Post
The Do Not Call Register (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006 accompanies the Do Not Call Register Bill 2006. It will provide for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to make national standards which will regulate aspects of the making of telemarketing calls.
Currently, telemarketers operate under a number of different rules established by industry bodies on a voluntary basis, State and Territory laws, as well as some Commonwealth legislation. A national legislative framework for telemarketing would provide a single regulatory framework for the
telemarketing industry and to consumers.
The national standards would apply to all telemarketers, including those organisations which are exempt from the prohibition on making unsolicited telemarketing calls.
The standards are expected to be in force from early 2007.
The Do Not Call Register
The Do Not Call Register Bill provides for the establishment of a Do Not Call Register. The Register would be
kept by ACMA or outsourced to a third party who would operate the Register on behalf of the ACMA. It provides a system
whereby individuals can register their home and mobile numbers on the Register.
A telephone number is eligible to be entered on the Do Not Call Register if:
(a) it is an Australian number; and
(b) it is used or maintained exclusively or primarily for private or domestic purposes; and
(c) it is not used or maintained exclusively for transmitting and/or receiving faxes.
Registration of a telephone number on the Do Not Call Register remains in force for 3 years at a time.
Telemarketers who wish to make telemarketing calls will in effect be required to check their calling lists against the numbers registered on the Do Not Call Register to ensure that they do not contact numbers of individuals who have opted out of receiving telemarketing calls.
Complaints relating to the Do Not Call Register and breaches of the Bill can be made to the ACMA. ACMA will have the power to take out injunctions or seek civil penalties against offenders.
What is a telemarketing call?
Telemarketing calls are voice calls made with the purpose to offer, supply, provide, advertise or promote goods or services for land or an interest in land; or a business opportunity or investment opportunity; or to solicit donations. Telemarketing calls include messages for which the commercial/marketing element may be a secondary purpose, not necessarily the primary purpose of the call, such as calls which may be primarily designed to gauge customer satisfaction, but have a secondary purpose of soliciting sales.
The key principle is that unsolicited telemarketing calls must not be made to a number registered on the Do Not Call Register without consent.
However "designated marketing calls" will be permitted.
What is consent?
Consent means:
(a) express consent; or
(b) consent that can reasonably be inferred from:
(i) the conduct; and
(ii) the business and other relationships;
of the individual or organisation concerned.
How long does consent last for?
If:
(a) express consent is given; and
(b) the consent is not expressed to be for a specified period or for an indefinite period;
the consent is taken to have been withdrawn at the end of the period of 3 months beginning on the day on which the consent was given.
Consent may not be inferred from the publication of a telephone number.
What is "a designated telemarketing call "?
A designated telemarketing call is exempt from the restrictions.
Calls by a government body, a religious organisation, a charity or charitable institution, Political parties, independent members of parliament, candidates and educational institutions may be exempt in certain circumstances.
Print This Post
ASIC Deputy Chairman Jeremy Cooper ‘s speech to the Securities & Derivatives Industry Association
2006 Conference on Managing conflicts of interest in the Australian financial service industry (pdf) gives historical background to the Corporations Act conflict rules with particular reference to stockbroking, insurance and superannuation.
Print This Post
The Minister for Communications, Senator Coonan, has introduced the Do Not Call legislation into Commonwealth Parliament.
The Do Not Call Register Bill 2006 and the Do Not Call Register
(Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006 provide a framework to establish a
Register that would allow individuals to opt-out from receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls.
The Bill requires the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to establish and oversee a Do Not Call Register and prohibits telemarketers from calling a number which has been included on the
Register.
ACMA will be able to tender out the operation of the Register, and it is expected a tender process will begin following the passage of the legislation.
The Register will be limited to individuals: the Government has decided not to include small businesses on the Register.
Individuals will not be charged to put their number on the Register. The Australian Government will contribute more than $17 million towards the cost of establishing the Register, with the telemarketing industry contributing $15.9 million over four years.
Exemptions will be provided for certain types of telemarketing calls such as calls from charities, registered political parties, independent Members of Parliament and candidates, religious organisations,
educational institutions (where the call is made to a student or alumni) and government bodies.
ACMA will be responsible for the enforcement of the legislation and a range of penalties will be available depending on the nature of the breach. ACMA will be able to issue formal warnings or infringement notices or commence court proceedings. The Courts will be able to impose fines ranging from $1,100 to $1.1 million.
It is intended that ACMA commence with implementation of the Register as early as
possible in 2007.
You can download the Bills and Explanatory Memoranda from the Parliament website.
Print This Post
The introduction of Australia’s proposed access card (formerly known as the health smart card) will be monitored by an Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce to be headed up by Professor Allan Fels, AO.
Human Services Minister Joe Hockey announced that consumer and privacy organisations can contact Professor Fels through the Office of Access Card:
Mail: PO Box 3959 Manuka ACT 2603
Email: a.fels@humanservices.gov.au
Telephone: (02) 6223 4739
General information about the access card is available on its website
Print This Post
Since 2002 the Government has been considering removing the ’100 member rule’, which requires companies to hold potentially expensive special general meetings at the request of only 100 shareholders. The change may occur this year.
In April 2006 the Exposure Draft Corporations Amendment Bill (No 2) 2006 (pdf) was released; the time for submissions has now closed. The Bill will implement reforms to improve rules for shareholder meetings announced by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, the Hon Chris Pearce MP, in December 2005.
Currently Section 249D of the Corporations Act allows company members with 5 per cent of the votes that can be cast at the general meeting or 100 members who are entitled to vote at the general meeting to requisition a general meeting at the expense of the company. Section 249(1) will be repealed and replaced with a section only requiring a meeting to be held on the request of members with at least 5% of the votes that may be cast at the general meeting.
The Government will also proceed with reforms to require proxy holders to vote in accordance with shareholder instructions, and to facilitate electronic circulation of resolutions and members statements.
The Government will not proceed with proposals to reduce the threshold requirements for shareholders to propose members’ resolutions and members’ statements.
The requirements relating to the disclosure of proxy votes before a vote is taken at a meeting of shareholders(subsection 250J(1A)) will be repealed.
Print This Post
