Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What this country needs is a thriving start-up ecosystem, and of course an important part of that ecosystem is funding. An ecosystem is exactly how it sounds; every component of that ecosystem must work together well. One important component of that funding ecosystem is crowdsourced equity funding, which is why it is such a pleasure to support a bill that will allow for crowdsourced equity funding to have a framework in this country but it is also why it is such a shame that the bill has been produced in a way that has attracted such strong and significant criticism from some very highly regarded stakeholders in this space.

So it was with great pleasure that I heard the relevant shadow parliamentary secretary, Ed Husic, earlier today extend an olive branch to the coalition; he said that, if the coalition would go out and engage with stakeholders and improve the many flaws in this bill, then Labor would not criticise the coalition for further delay in passing this bill. We believe not only is crowdsourced equity funding important; it is important to get it right.

There is a Senate inquiry into the bill on foot at the moment, and you would be aware that some very significant and well regarded stakeholders have made submissions to that inquiry. A couple of them are stakeholders whom I have spent a fair bit of time with in my role as one of the co-chairs of the bipartisan parliamentary friendship group on innovation and enterprise. We are very fortunate, for example, to have the benefit of the expertise of a leading voice in the space of funding for start-ups, Angela Perry, who heads up Employee Ownership Australia and New Zealand. Ms Perry has written to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics to raise a number of concerns about the bill and particularly about what it is going to mean for the firms that want to use crowdsourced equity funding.

One of those significant concerns that needs serious and considered reflection is the issue that has been raised by several stakeholders and responders to the inquiry: the public company requirement. The issue that has arisen is that the bill will require a firm to become an unlisted public company in order to have the benefit of the crowdsourced equity funding framework

The submission that Employee Ownership Australia have made explains why they are so concerned about this requirement. It says:

Most companies only move themselves into the public company domain as a precursor to listing or when they reach a size that they are equivalent to a listed company. The key reason for this is the increased requirements on the company around reporting, disclosure, financials etc and the costs associated with this.

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