G100 Submissions have been accepted

The Group of 100 (G100) made a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, regarding the inquiry into Litigation Funding and the Regulation of Class Action.

The Federal Government announced temporary amendments to the continuous disclosure provisions of the Corporations Act in May 2020. The changes came into effect on Tuesday 26 May, and they will make companies and officers only be liable if there has been “knowledge, recklessness or negligence” with respect to updates on price-sensitive information to the market.

The changes were made under the Treasurer’s emergency instrument-making power, legislated in response to the COVID-19 crisis and will remain in place for six months. The Federal Government has made this change due to the difficult environment which has left companies open to the “threat of opportunistic class actions”.

The Committee will look into whether the present level of regulation applying to Australia’s growing class action industry is impacting fair and equitable outcomes for plaintiffs, and report by 7 December 2020.

Earlier this year the G100 made a submission to the Senate Economics References Committee, regarding the inquiry into into Foreign Investment Proposals.

On 4 December 2019, the Senate referred an inquiry into foreign investment proposals to the Senate Economics References Committee for inquiry and report.

Pursuant to the temporary order agreed to on 23 March 2020, the Senate Economics References Committee has agreed that the time for presentation of the report of the inquiry into foreign investment proposals be extended from 7 September 2020 to 16 December 2020.

You can read all the submissions to the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Foreigninvestment/Submissions

You can read all the submissions to the Parliamentary inquiry into Litigation Funding and the Regulation of Class Action here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Corporations_and_Financial_Services/Litigationfunding/Submissions