Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, it was. It was a very long report. The Australian Law Reform Commission completed its 339-page report on class action proceedings and third-party litigation funders in December 2018. It was this government that commissioned that report, this government that received that report on 21 December 2018 and, in January 2019, this government that said that it would carefully consider each of the report's 24 recommendations and provide a response. So where is the government's response? You might have thought that the Attorney-General would provide it today, but it's nowhere—17 months and not a word. Why? Because that independent report by the Australian Law Reform Commission into the same subject matter as this new referral to a parliamentary inquiry didn't give the government the answers that it wanted. Even today the Attorney-General is not responding to the lengthy report of the government's own inquiry.

We've also seen that the government has tried to claim that this new inquiry is urgent because of the increased risk of shareholder class actions against listed companies for breach of continuous disclosure requirements during the COVID-19 crisis. But why then has the government ignored, for some 17 months, the 2018 recommendation of the Australian Law Reform Commission:

The Australian Government should commission a review of the legal and economic impact of the operation, enforcement, and effects of continuous disclosure obligations and those relating to misleading and deceptive conduct contained in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth).

It's abundantly clear that the government's agenda in establishing this new inquiry is far broader and far more ideologically driven than the discreet issue of reform to the class action regime in relation to litigation funding or reform in relation to shareholder actions against listed companies for breach of continuous disclosure obligations, nor is the COVID-19 pandemic the reason for this government's inquiry. If they refer to it, it is simply an excuse.

If the impetus for this inquiry really was the narrow and specific purpose of responding to the risk of predatory actions against listed companies during the COVID-19 crisis, then Labor would, as always, be willing to engage in a constructive way, but that is not what this inquiry is about. So I say again, while Labor does not oppose sensible law reform and believes reform must be an ongoing task, the Australian Law Reform Commission completed a comprehensive report in relation to the matters that are the subject of this proposed parliamentary inquiry less than 18 months ago. What we now need is a comprehensive response from the Morrison government to the commission's 339-page report and to its 24 recommendations for reform. Labor does not support this government-controlled parliamentary inquiry created to stack the deck against ordinary Australians trying to uphold their rights in court.

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