Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure for me to speak on the Corporations Amendment (No. 1) Bill 2010 as I have some interest in Corporations Law and other such pieces of legislation and regulation in this place, as do many others. I thank the member for Casey for his contribution and his placing on the record his support, and I assume that of his party, for this very good amendment bill. It does a number of things, based on maintaining trust and confidence in our regulatory system and markets of ordinary investors and people in the marketplace and ensuring that, when they make an investment their investment, as far as possible, is protected from unscrupulous people.

It does this in a number of ways. This bill contains two separate but related sets of measures, both aimed squarely at protecting investors and ensuring they can have trust and confidence in our share market. It also sends out a clear signal that the regulator and the government are doing everything they can to ensure that we have a credible and strong system of governance around our markets. It also ensures that we will target misconduct and ensures that the necessary regulations, powers and so forth are in place to deal with those who cheat our system. Interestingly, the member opposite, the member for Casey, commented on supporting this bill but wanting to make sure there were checks and balances in place. I agree and I think we all would agree that while we want to ensure that the regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, has all of the necessary powers at its disposal—as do other regulators in these areas—those powers are checked against abuse or the wilful nature of their application in any particular way. It is important and we all ought to be conscious of it. But I do not think that in itself ought to detract this parliament or the regulator from the good work they are doing in terms of monitoring market manipulation, ensuring that we have a fair and equitable, properly managed and monitored marketplace—a proper system of regulation.

It is a really difficult market and there is no question about that. Australia has over 1.6 million corporations and it is mostly a self-regulatory system. All the checks and balances you put in place are really there for those that follow the rules and do the right thing. They act as a guide and a regulatory base for all of these things to take place. Where people willingly break the rules, manipulate the market or, for that matter, are involved in a range of other offences there needs to be the right system in place not only to deter them in the first place by having the right penalties and breaches as part of our regulatory system but also there needs to be the correct monitoring and powers for the regulator to deal with these manipulations or this misconduct before they take place. I think it is as important to make sure that the regulator has sufficient powers—regulatory, monitoring and intervention powers—and that those powers span right across the regulatory board to ensure that ASIC and others can do their job properly.

I do not think anyone would disagree with that. I do not think that there is any argument against making sure there is no abuse of that power by the regulator itself, but I will be listening closely and monitoring what the opposition do in this area to ensure they do not abuse their role in this place and use either the bureaucracy, the regulator itself or public servants as scapegoats for poor policy on their own behalf. Only just recently I have detected a small tinge of this coming through and it seems that after 12 years of government—some would say that is plenty of opportunity to get some things right—

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