Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We all know that COVID-19 has had a massive impact on many parts of our communities and, in particular, our business community. There have been many things that have prevented businesses doing things they normally do, particularly because of the large number of unpredictable lockdowns that we've all had to experience. I have more than 12,000 businesses in my electorate of Herbert, and JobKeeper has supported at least 4,000 of those through this pandemic. But subsidies and financial assistance alone aren't enough to keep businesses going. The burden of regulatory red tape has had to be eased in a lot of areas, and that has had a major positive impact in helping small business owners through the pandemic.

That's what today's bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021, is about. We're extending some of the temporary relief that has allowed business dealings to continue. Specifically, schedule 1 extends temporary relief, allowing companies to use technology to meet regulatory requirements, hold meetings, distribute meeting materials and execute documents until 15 September 2021. We've all become very accustomed to Zoom and Teams over the last 12 months, and this will allow those technologies to continue to be used to hold those meetings while meeting face to face is still impossible. We need to be ready for another COVID-19 outbreak maybe occurring in a particular area and for public health orders being imposed from time to time.

But we're not just extending the date and leaving it at that. The extension includes enhancements to the original temporary relief following feedback received through consultation. These enhancements including ensuring that substantive regulatory obligations are the same irrespective of whether companies conduct meetings virtually, in person or in a combination of both, or whether they use paper based or electronic forms of communication. The extension will cover more than 200 listed companies and many more unlisted companies with 31 December as their year-end date, who are expected to hold annual general meetings in the first half of this year.

COVID-19 has helped revolutionise a lot of things and helped us make changes and try new things that we really didn't need to try before a global pandemic. That's why, in response to the positive feedback from consultation, we're also proposing permanent reforms that will continue to allow companies to electronically sign company documents and send meeting related materials electronically. These reforms will be in place when this temporary extension ends. We're also proposing to conduct an opt-in pilot for hybrid annual general meetings, in which shareholders can choose whether to attend meetings in person or virtually. This pilot will commence when the extension to the temporary relief ends. The aim of the pilot will be to encourage companies and shareholders to engage with technology, with a view to considering whether further permanent reforms are needed to further support companies to use technology effectively to engage positively with their shareholders. In addition to enabling businesses to use digital technologies to conduct meetings and send meeting related materials, the relief also allows businesses to use digital technologies to sign meeting related materials and keep, retain and provide meeting related materials such as meeting minutes.

What about those in our community who might not be able to access technology? The experience with this temporary relief was that shareholder attendance increased when they were offered the ability to participate via technology. Compared with 2019, there was a 36 per cent increase in shareholder attendance in 2020. In 2020 some companies had over 800 people attending their virtual meeting. So they actually had more people attend, because they didn't have to physically be anywhere. But this relief does accommodate shareholders if they have preferences for physical meetings, as they place no obligation on companies to host virtual-only meetings if the shareholder base prefers otherwise. This relief also allows shareholders to elect to receive hard-copy meeting materials.

What about protecting shareholders' rights with these virtual meetings? That's a question that I, too, asked. Shareholders will have the same substantive regulatory protections regardless of whether a physical, virtual or hybrid meeting is held. Specifically, companies provide shareholders as a whole with facilities to ask questions orally and make comments at the meeting, a reasonable opportunity to participate, and facilities to be counted towards a quorum and to vote and comply with preferred voting methods as expressed in company constitutions. Companies must also send meeting related materials electronically and send hard copies if shareholders elect to receive them.

This is a great example of how we don't necessarily need to go back to exactly how things were before COVID-19. This is an example of how we have learned plenty of lessons from trying something new, how we can move forward in a way which will provide significant savings for businesses and, in turn, how we can reinvest in creating more jobs for Australians.

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