Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, after 30 days ASIC will reassess the situation and decide whether it will again allow covered short sales in non-financial stocks and naked short sales. It will review the ban on covered short sales of financial stocks at the same time as the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the UK Financial Services Authority and others do so. It is very important to maximise international coordination and consultation in these turbulent times in financial markets. ASIC’s actions over the weekend have strong support from the Australian financial sector. As previously noted, the government will introduce shortly the Corporations Amendment (Short Selling) Bill 2008 which will establish a comprehensive disclosure regime for covered short selling should the regulator determine at a future date to again allow this form of market trading. As has been said, Australia does have a world-class regulatory system. The actions of our regulators last week—(Time expired)