Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the responsibilities that comes with government is inheriting the consequences of decisions you didn't make. Sometimes that means fixing what was broken before you arrived, and that is what this bill is seeking to do. It is the result of this government choosing to get on with the job of identifying areas that need fixing and then moving forward with reforms that make them better. That is what the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill 2026 represents, and I'm proud to make a contribution to this debate.

To appreciate why we are making these changes, I think it's worth understanding what came before. In 2020, the former coalition government launched what it called the Modernising Business Registers Program. The ambition to consolidate 30 of Australia's business registers into one was, in principle, a sensible idea. However, the execution was anything but. Year after year, the costs ballooned while deadlines were consistently missed. In what has become a defining legacy of the former coalition government, promises were made to businesses and regulators that amounted to nothing.

By the time the independent Rees review examined the program in 2023, the findings were damning. The costs had escalated so dramatically that they would far outweigh the benefits that any program might deliver. In the end, the review recommended cessation. The program was a complete failure. In August 2023, this government made the difficult but responsible decision to pull the plug. We cancelled the Modernising Business Registers Program and committed to a new, pragmatic and better managed approach, one led by ASIC and focused on delivering actual outcomes for Australian businesses. I make this point because it explains the reasoning for what we are talking about today.

The former government did not just waste money; it left a legislative time bomb. Unless this parliament acts before 30 June 2026, provisions from that failed program will automatically commence on 1 July 2026. Those provisions would transfer legal responsibility for Australia's business registers away from ASIC and hand it to a different body entirely: a registrar established for a program that no longer exists. That would be a bureaucratic and operational disaster, and this bill prevents that from happening.

Before working through what this bill does, it is worth also stepping back and understanding why we need these registers. Australian business registers are, in many respects, critical to our commercial economy. When Australians look up a company to check whether it's legitimate, they're using a business register. When a bank assesses a loan application or when a regulator investigates misconduct or even when a small business checks whether its supplier actually exists, they are using a business register. They are established under statute, administered by independent regulators and, unlike many other data sources, carry legal weight. They are an authoritative source of truth and generate around $1.2 billion in annual revenue for the Commonwealth, underpinning our business tax collection system. These registers are critical national economic infrastructure, and, for too long, they have been running on technology that is decades out of date and increasingly at risk. That is why our government is fixing that.

Since December 2023, we have committed $527.2 million to stabilise and uplift the registers under ASIC's leadership. That program, known as RegistryConnect, is on time and on budget. In fact, it's already delivering results, but, to keep it on track, we need this legislation.

The bill has three schedules. Schedule 3 is the most urgent. It repeals provisions left over from the failed Modernising Business Registers program that are set to automatically commence on 1 July 2026. As I mentioned earlier, without this repeal, those provisions would make Australian Business Registry Services, a body created for a cancelled program, responsible for registers. ASIC would lose the authority it needs to continue the important work it has been doing. The RegistryConnect program would be thrown into disarray, causing costs to blow out and key deliverables to be delayed. Schedule 3 simply ensures that that doesn't happen. It confirms what the government decided in 2023: ASIC is responsible for these registers and ASIC will continue to administer and uplift them.

Schedule 2 is the part of the bill that gives ASIC the powers it needs to do its job properly in the modern era. First, it allows directors to use an alternative address for service rather than their home addresses when their details are listed on the register. This is a privacy and safety measure. Right now, the home addresses of company directors are publicly visible on the register. For most directors, this is probably a minor inconvenience, but, for some, including those facing domestic violence situations, those who've received threats and those in sensitive professions, it is a genuine safety risk. This change gives those individuals meaningful protection without reducing the transparency and accountability that the register provides.

Second, the bill expands ASIC's capacity to interact with businesses and individuals electronically. In 2026 there is no reason why routine interactions with a government regulator should require paper forms and postal mail. These changes will make it simpler and more efficient for companies and individuals to deal with ASIC, again reducing red tape in a way that actually brings about meaningful change.

Third, the bill gives ASIC appropriate powers to correct errors on registers, disclose information in the public interest and, in limited but important circumstances, deregister companies where false or misleading information has been provided. In an environment where fraud and misuse of corporate structures is a genuine growing concern, that last power is particularly significant.

But schedule 1 is perhaps the most significant part of the bill. It is the part that I think will deliver the greatest long-term benefit for businesses, for consumers and for the integrity of our corporate system. Since November 2021, directors of Australian companies have been required to hold a director ID. That is a unique, lifelong identifier used by Australian Business Registry Services and administered by the tax office. Three million directors now hold one. The director ID regime was designed to address a specific and serious problem: the ability of bad actors to use false identities to set up companies, strip assets and disappear. But a director ID only works if it is visible. Right now, the information sits with the tax office and is not linked to the ASIC companies register. Despite this being the register that businesses and the public actually use when they want to check who is running a company, the two systems do not talk to each other, and that gap is where fraudsters hide.

Schedule 1 closes that gap. It requires companies to report director ID information to ASIC for all of their directors at the point of registration, through the annual review process and whenever director details change. That information will then be linked to and published on the company's register so that anyone, whether that be a prospective business partner, a consumer, a journalist or a regulator, can verify who is actually behind a company and trace their connections across corporate entities. This is a genuine structural reform to how corporate transparency works in Australia. Next time a business is considering a major contract with a new supplier, they'll be able to check whether the directors of that supplier have a history of failed companies. If the consumer is worried about whether a company is legitimate, they will have more information to make that judgement. In the situation where ASIC is investigating potential misconduct, they will have better tools to follow the money and identify the people responsible.

This bill also includes integrity measures to ensure that directors are aware of and consented to their appointment at the point of linking. This directly addresses a real problem. There are too many instances where individuals have found themselves listed as directors of companies without their knowledge. This is a gateway to identity theft and fraud. These measures slam shut that loophole.

As a responsible government, this bill did not emerge from nothing. The Treasury conducted public consultation on the draft legislation from December 2025 through to February this year. The feedback was overwhelmingly supportive. Stakeholders across business, the legal profession and civil society recognised the value of what this legislation does. There was particular and strong support for the director ID-linking provisions, as many submissions highlighted the importance of these changes for cybersecurity and antifraud efforts. That broad support reflects that fact that, unlike the failed program it replaces, this legislation has been developed through genuine engagement with the people it affects.

This bill sits alongside a broader set of reforms that the Albanese Labor government has made since coming into office, and it is the foundation on which the next phase of work will be built. With this legislation in place, ASIC will deliver new company search services later this year. In 2027, new company registration services will launch, and the director ID regime will be formally linked to the company's register by 1 July 2027. Looking further ahead, the stabilised register will also be the platform on which this government delivers beneficial ownership reforms that will shine a light on who truly owns and controls Australian companies, rather than just who appears to on the paperwork. That work can only proceed once the registers are stabilised and modernised. This bill makes it possible.

This is a bill about getting the basics right. It is about making sure Australia's core economic infrastructure is fit for purpose and reflects the modern society it operates in. This bill also makes sure the systems that businesses and consumers rely on to verify who they're dealing with are accurate, secure, modern and, above all else, trustworthy. It fixes a legislative hangover from a failed expensive program that the former coalition government left behind. It gives ASIC the tools it needs to do its job, while delivering meaningful reform that makes it harder for bad-faith actors to defraud and exploit honest businesses and working people. That is worthy thing for this parliament to do, and I'm proud that this government is getting on and doing it. I commend the bill to the House.

Julie-Ann Campbell (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Strong economies? They're built on trust—trust that institutions are accountable and should be accountable, trust that markets operate fairly and should operate fairly and trust that rules are applied consistently and should be applied consistently. Confidence and trust are absolutely critical for economies to function effectively. When Australians have confidence in institutions, businesses and markets, they are more willing to invest. They're more willing to innovate, to employ workers and to make long-term decisions with confidence. This is what this bill delivers.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill 2026 strengthens Australia's business registries so that they are more secure, more transparent, more reliable and more useful for the Australians who rely on them every single day. It's true that business registries may not often make the headlines, but they are critical economic infrastructure. Before a supplier extends credit, a landlord enters a commercial lease, an investor undertakes due diligence or a regulator investigates suspicious conduct, decisions are being made based on the reliability of corporate information. Australia's business registries, because of that, are critical economic infrastructure. They provide trusted information about companies, directors and corporate structures that supports transparency, accountability and indeed confidence across the entire economy in this nation. Efficient markets depend on that reliable information and trusted systems. When information is accurate, accessible and reliable, businesses can invest with better confidence, markets operate more effectively and regulators are better equipped to maintain integrity across the corporate framework. That is why Australia's business registries matter and why they must evolve with the expectations of a modern economy.

Many of the systems underpinning Australia's business registries rely on ageing legacy technology that requires modernisation. The Albanese Labor government recognised that these systems required practical reform and so, following an independent review in 2023, this government made the decision to cease the former coalition government's Modernising Business Registers Program after significant cost escalation without delivering on the intended outcomes. Rather than continuing to invest in a program that was not delivering and was not working, Labor took a very practical approach—stabilising Australia's business registries, fixing what wasn't working and focusing on reforms that could be delivered.

That is why the Albanese Labor government established RegistryConnect, a measured and achievable program focused on strengthening registry integrity, modernising digital services and delivering practical improvements for business and the whole community at large. Since 2023, the Albanese Labor government has committed more than $527 million to stabilise and modernise Australia's business registries. Importantly, RegistryConnect is on time, on budget and already delivering those practical improvements. That includes a new professional register search function, a streamlined Australian Financial Services licence registration portal and a redesigned ASIC website that consolidates company and business registration information. This bill supports the continuation of that process, that progress and that work that we as a government have already done.

A major component of this bill strengthens the current director identification number regime and integrates it more effectively into Australia's business registry scheme. Director IDs are an important integrity measure within Australia's corporate regulatory framework. They provide a unique identifier that remains with an individual director over time, making it much easier to trace directorships across corporate entities, distinguish between individuals with very similar names and strengthen the reliability of information held on ASIC's business registers. The director ID regime has operated since 2021 and, since its induction, around three million directors have obtained a director ID. Accurate and reliable registry information strengthens confidence in Australia's corporate framework and supports stronger regulatory oversight. It helps regulators monitor patterns of activity, strengthens the integrity of corporate information and makes it harder for individuals to obscure their involvement across multiple entities.

However, there is an important gap in that current framework. At present, director IDs sit separately from ASIC's companies register, limiting the transparency and integrity benefits the regime was designed to support. This legislation will enable director ID information to be linked to ASIC's companies register, strengthening the quality, usability and reliability of information across Australia's business registry system. Importantly, this reform does not create a new standalone reporting regime or unnecessary red tape for business. Instead, companies will provide director ID information through existing registration and reporting processes, including annual reviews and updates to director details. That means stronger transparency and accountability delivered through systems that businesses already use in their day-to-day. Linking director IDs to company records will make it easier for regulators to trace those relationships across multiple corporate entities, improve the accuracy of that registry information that so many businesses rely on and support stronger regulatory oversight. It will also provide greater confidence in the integrity of company information—relied upon by businesses, relied upon by investors and, indeed, relied upon by the broader community to give them the confidence that this is a system that is accurate and that this is a system that they can have faith in.

These reforms will strengthen efforts to combat fraud and illegal phoenix activity. Illegal phoenix activity occurs when a company is deliberately liquidated or abandoned—in order to avoid debts, employee entitlements, tax liabilities or obligations to suppliers—before effectively continuing operations through a different corporate entity. Workers can be deprived of wages and entitlements that they have earned. Suppliers and creditors can be left carrying unpaid debts.

If you've ever seen a company phoenix itself, you'll know that it's not just its workers who lie in the wake of that kind of devastation, because families are left broken when workers' entitlements are not paid—when what workers are owed for what they have worked is not paid. And that often takes many, many years to recover from. We should not, in any way, be rewarding those unscrupulous companies who shut down and start up again at the expense of everyday working people.

Businesses doing the right thing can find themselves competing against operators willing to avoid obligations and undermine fair competition, and public revenue can be diminished through unpaid tax liabilities. Labor believes that businesses doing the right thing should not be placed at a disadvantage by those seeking to exploit loopholes, avoid obligations or obscure accountability through complex corporate structures. By strengthening the transparency and traceability of directorships, this bill supports a fairer and more accountable marketplace, strengthens regulatory oversight and reinforces confidence in the integrity of Australia's corporate system overall.

The integrity of Australia's business registries depends not only on accuracy and transparency but also on strong privacy and safety protections. Australians rightly expect that personal and sensitive information is safeguarded, particularly in an increasingly digital economy, and this bill balances that transparency with privacy protections. It strengthens ASIC's capacity to manage access to registry information, including the ability to redact or restrict sensitive information where privacy or safety risks outweigh public benefit. It allows for alternative service addresses in circumstances where personal details should remain protected. Accountability and privacy are not mutually exclusive. You can have both, and that's what this bill focuses on. The Albanese Labor government is delivering reforms that ensure registries are both transparent and safe, giving businesses, regulators and communities confidence in that system.

Another critical feature of this bill is the modernisation of how ASIC administers Australia's business registers. The existing legislative framework was designed for a completely different era. It doesn't reflect the expectations of our contemporary digital economy. And when the way in which we work changes, we have to change with it. This bill expands ASIC's ability to engage digitally and electronically with users, reducing reliance on paper based processes and improving operational efficiency. The result is a simpler, faster and more streamlined experience for businesses and individuals interacting with those registers. By removing unnecessary friction and reducing administrative complexity, the bill allows businesses to spend more time investing, growing and creating jobs, and supporting a more productive and resilient economy.

Another important function of this bill is ensuring continuity and certainty in the administration of Australia's business registries. Urgent legislative action is required before 30 June this year. Without these amendments, legacy provisions associated with the former Modernising Business Registers program would automatically commence on 1 July, transferring responsibility for registry administration away from ASIC and into a framework designed for a program that was stopped back in 2023. That outcome would create unnecessary disruption, undermine reforms that are already on the way and delay practical improvements currently being delivered through RegistryConnect. This bill prevents that disruption. It ensures responsibility for Australia's business registries remains with ASIC, maintains continuity across registry operations and supports the next phase of practical improvements already being delivered through RegistryConnect.

Businesses rely on trusted registry information to assess risk, to make investment decisions and to operate, as I've said before, with confidence. Regulators rely on stable systems to uphold integrity across the corporate framework, and Australians rightly expect those systems underpinning economic activity to operate effectively, reliably and fairly. The Albanese Labor government made a deliberate decision to stabilise and uplift Australia's business registries after the former coalition government's Modernising Business Registers program experienced that substantial cost escalation without delivering what it was supposed to in the first place. RegistryConnect is already delivering those practical outcomes, and it's working. Effective markets depend on trusted systems and reliable information, and the Albanese Labor government is continuing to invest in those practical forms that strengthen confidence, that improve productivity, that support a more transparent and overall resilient economy.

At its heart, this bill is about strengthening trust, integrity and confidence in Australia's economic infrastructure. It modernises those systems that underpin Australia's business registries and it ensures that they are more reliable, more secure and better equipped for the modern digital economy. It strengthens transparency and accountability through director ID integration. It improves privacy and safety protections. It supports action against fraud, identity misuse and illegal phoenix activity, and it modernises how ASIC administers registry services, reducing unnecessary friction and improving efficiency for businesses and for our whole community. The Albanese Labor government is delivering practical reforms that strengthen market integrity, because stronger institutions support stronger markets, and stronger markets support a stronger economy.

Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill 2026. In doing so, I'd like to congratulate the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury not only for the work that he has done in this bill but the work that he has done for many, many years in the lead-up to this bill.

What really lies at the heart of this legislation is the insidious practice of phoenixing, which is spread across all industries, of course, but is particularly prevalent in the construction industry. I know that the now assistant minister really led the Labor Party's policies to combat that awful soul-destroying, business-destroying practice of phoenixing. We are now starting to see or hear, at least anecdotally, in the construction industry that phoenixing, while it still exists, is nowhere near as bad as it was before these reforms were introduced.

As anyone who has sat through one of my speeches before knows, I like to remind people that I did have experience in the real world. I did plenty of jobs, one of which was running a construction company. I joke every now and then when I tell people that because, really, I'm only 26. This is what construction will do to you. There is nothing like construction. It is hard to get the work, it is hard to do the work and it's hard to get paid. It reminds me of that maxim for products and services: there are three features—quality, cheap, fast—and you can't have all three at one time. It can be fast and quality but it won't be cheap, or it can be cheap and fast but it won't be quality. But construction, I think, is the one industry in which it has to be all three. It has to be on time, it has to be on budget and it has to work. There is really no industry like construction. As I say, it's hard to get the work, it's hard to do the work and it's hard to get paid, but that last feature should not be an inherent feature of the construction industry. The fact that it is hard to get paid is a failure of governments to regulate to give protection to those businesses, which are quite often sole traders or mum-and-dad businesses.

The assistant minister will have missed the very kind things that I said about him, but I remember standing in a high-rise sometime in 2018, as he was announcing the then Labor opposition's policy to combat illegal phoenixing, at the heart of which director identification numbers sat. I'm glad that he's here, because the assistant minister has done a lot of work over a long period of time. One of the reasons that I do remind people that I had a real job is that I did also work for Senator Murray Watt, and it was during that employment, from about 2018, that I stood with the now assistant minister to announce the Labor government's policy.

There's also somebody else who I met while working for Senator Watt and who I really would like to give a particular shout-out, because his story sits at the heart of this legislation and this approach to combatting illegal phoenixing. That is somebody called Les Williams, who the assistant minister may well remember. He formed the Subcontractors Alliance, and I will quote extensively from a Senate submission that he made in about 2015. I won't quote him verbatim, because I'm going to into intersperse it with some of my own commentary. But I think Les's story, and the way Les puts it, really sums up what this legislation is designed to defeat.

He began:

The Subcontractors' Alliance … was formed in Queensland following the "collapse" of the Walton Construction Companies in early October 2013.

This is a notoriously famous case, where a reputable company collapsed and left plenty of people in the lurch, but many people may not know the story. I couldn't actually find media reporting. It was only when I had a chance to talk to Les this afternoon, to catch up and let him know that I intended to bring this up today, that he told me that this story actually has a bit of a happy ending, believe it or not. But back in 2015 it was not a happy story.

Les gave some background here:

In Australia subcontractors—

this is back in 2015, so things would've changed a little bit—

are responsible for between 80% and 85% of all construction work, the highest involvement of subcontracting in the world.

What that means is that you've got mums and dads and sole traders essentially providing the infrastructure, the machinery and the labour but also the credit to do the jobs that we need to build our country. He went on:

It follows then, that subcontractors are extremely diverse small businesses ranging from Mum and Dad operators to quite sophisticated businesses. We construct, manufacture, pre-fabricate, transport, fabricate and retail—

In Forde, if you look at sole traders in construction, you've got about 2½ thousand subbies working in the construction industry who are sole traders. You've got another 1,300 or so companies based in Forde who employ between one and four employees. That's a total of 4,000 companies, from sole traders to four employees, who according to this statistic provide something like 80 per cent or so of all of the construction work that happens in this country. Nationally—this is back in 2015, remember—small business subbies employed about 800,000 people. In Queensland then, that was about 85,000 subbies employing about 250,000 people statewide.

Les said:

Insolvency in the building and construction industry—

back in 2015—

is valued at $3.4 billion annually and the debt is borne predominately by subcontractors. …

Not reported in any statistics is the value of wrongful withholding of money by main contractors due to last payment bargaining, conjured disputes and bogus defect deductions.

Anybody who has been in the construction industry knows that that is a regular practice. Les said:

It is commonplace for large construction companies or construction companies employing subcontractors to divert income from one project to another to service the others debt, make short term investments or divert cash to family trusts, all aided and abetted by their corporate advisors.

It is commonplace also for construction companies to "target" individual subcontractors. This is the insidious practice of not paying a specific vulnerable subcontractor—

as a strategy—

usually at subcontract's end, with the clear intent of forcing the subcontractor into liquidation.

That's the truly evil, awful stuff that they do behind the scenes. The stuff that they do in the open is really just as bad.

When you look at payment terms, I've worked for companies where there was something like 90-day payment terms, but 30-day payment terms are common. That means that you work for 30 days, you submit an invoice and then you wait another 30 days to be paid. Basically, you're carrying the debt. You're giving credit to your head contractor for 60 days or so, leaving you particularly vulnerable at the end of the contract, which is when most construction insolvencies happen. They happen at the end of the month, when payments to subbies fall due. Les said:

Construction companies with hold a total of 5% of the subcontract value as security [retention] usually in cash—

which they then use to fund jobs or use it as they will without any permission of the actual subcontractor that they're withholding it from. And, when a strategy of driving that subbie into the ground pays off and they go bust, they pocket that whole retention payment.

So here it was that Deloitte did a report into Walton Construction. According to Les, it said:

The Construction arm of the business is classified as Tier Two builder. In Construction terms this refers to a company with a turnover of between $150m and $500m and with the ability to operate multiple jobs with contract values exceeding $50m at any one time. The contracts are predominately associated with health care, government and large scale residential.

This was not a small, two-bit player. Walton had an advisory board, so they got into trouble. The report indicated that they had about $337 million of work. They had about $240 million or so that was owed to subbies. There was a lot going on there, and it was later identified that by about July 2012 they were trading insolvent.

Les said:

In July 2012, Walton restructured his companies. Walton's construction companies at this time inserted a "novation clause" in their subcontracts. This gave Walton the ability to transfer subcontracts without subcontractors consent when he chose to "phoenix" or "transfer assets".

… NAB—

who should be ashamed of themselves because of what they did in this case—

concerned about their financial exposure, refused to issue Walton any more bank guarantees—

and forced them into a corporate restructuring, which effectively took place in 2013. NAB essentially helped them exit the industry. Walton set up two new companies and placed the company into liquidation, but NAB managed to preserve their debt in one of the companies that continued to operate. Les said:

The report to creditors indicated 1350 subcontractors owed $70 million and over 100 of his staff owed approximately $1.5 million in wages and entitlements that were ultimately paid by design by the taxpayer

There is evidence of NAB's overview of the phoenix companies until those entities entered administration. It was also evident that NAB acted with callous disregard for subcontractors and, along with Walton and his advisers, acted out of self-interest and to the detriment of subbies. In June 2013, prior to them entering administration, they moved money around. It is a sorry tale, with a human face.

Les had three examples. In Townsville, Mark Stevens, the owner of a successful scaffolding business, lost his equipment valued in excess of $1 million. He lost his house, his land and his work depot, valued at $1½ million. He endured a marriage breakdown and lived in his car for some time. He had his equipment impounded onsite for quite some time without payment, and his equipment was ultimately damaged by others.

On the Sunshine Coast, the owner of a landscaping business subcontracted by Walton lost his house, his life savings, his car, his business and his wife and two kids. The majority of his subcontract took place in the months of July, August and September 2013, when Walton and NAB were well aware of their insolvency and their intentions to avoid their liabilities. In Melbourne, one manufacturing subcontractor invested in factory extensions based on the value of the work he subcontracted with Walton after being given assurances, and he ultimately lost over $500,000 in revenue and his factory. That's one of many stories. That is one of the things that I know provided impetus back in 2015 to the now assistant minister's work in this area with individuals like Les, who didn't give up.

The end of this story is a good news story for Les. He ended up taking NAB to a class action and, only a couple of months ago, won $20 million. That's not all of it, but it is some of it. If there is a story of David taking on Goliath, it is that story—and that story hasn't quite been told publicly yet. To Les Williams, to the assistant minister and to everybody who has helped with this legislation, to see what is at least anecdotally having an impact, all power to you and all power to this legislation. And for the sake of the mums and dads and sole traders who live in Forde, I commend the bill to the House.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the members who have contributed to the debate, the members for Page, Maribyrnong and Moreton. I'd particularly like to thank the member for Forde for his generous words about me and for his wise words about phoenixing and for telling us the story of Les. There is no bigger champion of the working class in parliament than the member for Forde, and we're lucky to serve alongside him.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill is about strengthening the integrity of Australia's business registers as critical economic infrastructure. These registers underpin confidence in our corporate system by providing reliable information that supports informed decision-making by businesses, regulators and the public. The government's targeted registry stabilisation and uplift program is already delivering improvements following the cessation of the former Modernising Business Registers program, which was paused after it blew out to five times its projected cost. This bill is necessary to ensure that work can continue without disruption and that the significant investment already made delivers lasting benefits.

Schedule 1 strengthens the director identification number regime by embedding it more effectively into existing company registration and reporting processes. While directors are already required to hold a director ID, linking this information to the companies register ensures it can be used as intended—to strengthen transparency, improve the traceability of directors and reduce opportunities for misuse of corporate structures, including illegal phoenix activity. The schedule also includes appropriate safeguards, including notification and consent measures, and provides sensible transition arrangements.

Schedule 2 equips ASIC with a new and targeted set of registry powers, so it can administer the registers effectively in a contemporary digital environment and respond to external risks such as fraud and misuse. These powers support more efficient digital interactions, improve data quality and strengthen ASIC's ability to respond where registry information is inaccurate, misleading or being misused, while balancing transparency with privacy and safety.

Schedule 3 addresses a critical legislative issue by removing legacy provisions that would otherwise automatically commence and which would disrupt registry operations if they did so. The changes in this bill provide certainty and continuity, including ensuring ASIC remains responsible for the registers and the current uplift program can proceed as planned.

Taken together, the measures in this bill are practical, proportionate and necessary. They improve the integrity and usefulness of registry information, support transparency and market confidence, and ensure stability in the administration of Australia's business registers.

Finally, I acknowledge the Treasury officials who worked on this bill: Percy Bell, Michael Fitzgerald, George Kelleher, Michael Joost, Harry Braddick, Anne Nguyen, Mana Addepalli, David Haines, Angelina Kosev, Nelson Mendonca and Zoe Winston-Gregson. This bill ensures these important reforms remain on track and that Australia's business registers continue to be trusted, resilient and fit for purpose. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.