Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

As the parliamentary secretary has outlined, this bill was sent to a Senate committee and the Law Council of Australia in particular made a number of important suggestions regarding technical amendments. They have been outlined in the Senate report. They are as follows: the inclusion of debts as well as claims in relevant proposed new sections to ensure the consistent use of terminology in the Corporations Act; secondly, the amendment of proposed new subsection 563A(1) to clarify the types of claims which rank above subordinated claims; thirdly, the amendment of proposed new paragraph 563A(2)(b) to clarify that a claim by a person against a company must arise from that person’s involvement in dealing in the relevant company’s shares; fourthly, the amendment of current section 563B of the Corporations Act to clarify that statutory interest on non-subordinated claims will rank above subordinated claims under proposed section 563A; fifthly, the insertion of a new definition of the term ‘external administration’ in proposed new section 600H; and, finally, amendments to ensure that the bill does not disturb the effective operation of the creditors’ schemes of arrangement.

It was important that the Senate committee examine this bill. It reported on 18 November. The parliamentary secretary has just told the House that Treasury has advised him that all of the suggestions from the Senate committee have been picked up with the government amendments, which were circulated I think yesterday and just moved by the parliamentary secretary. We support these amendments and we make the point again that this is another very good example of why the government should not rush with legislation but should ensure that it gets its drafting right and should not rush ahead of Senate committees. As it turns out, the Senate committee reported just a few days ago prior to this debate. That is not always the case. I say to the new parliamentary secretary it is a good practice he has adopted and it is one that he should try and encourage his colleagues to adopt on so many other pieces of legislation.

This legislation was first introduced by the former Assistant Treasurer, Mr Bowen, I think in January of this year and was reintroduced in September by the parliamentary secretary following the election. So it is strange that it took so long for those recommendations on amendments to be accepted by the government. Perhaps they only found out about them during the course of the Senate inquiry, and if that is the case then that again reinforces the importance of those Senate inquiries on pieces of legislation.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

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