Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill validates certain fees charged by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) between 1 July 2011 and 11 March 2025, including the indexation applied to those fees.

These fees include late fees, 10-year upfront fees and special company review fees.

This amendment is administrative in nature. It corrects a technical error recently identified by ASIC, in the application of indexation introduced for these fees in the Corporations (Review Fees) Amendment Regulations 2011 (No. 1).

This error had the unintended effect of resetting indexation, while the explanatory statement to the 2011 amendment regulations indicates that the intended policy outcome of parliament was to apply indexation consistent with ASIC actions.

The passage of this bill will have no impact on the fees being charged to users of the ASIC business registers.

It ensures that the government has been authorised to collect the relevant fees in line with the longstanding application of indexation charged by ASIC.

These fees are well known to the business community and are publicly accessible via ASIC's website.

This follows an earlier regulatory amendment the government made on 11 March 2025, under the Corporations (Review Fees) Amendment (2025 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2025,to ensure that ASIC is authorised to collect the current fees that are charged to businesses, in line with the intended policy outcome.

In making the regulations, and this bill, the states and territories were notified of the proposed changes on 5 February 2025, and in September 2025, under the Legislative and Governance Forum for Corporations arrangement.

Full details of the measure are contained in the explanatory memorandum.

Debate adjourned.