A less than “radical change” to Australia’s court structure
Given the Attorney-General’s openness to “radical change” in the structure of Australian courts, one small but significant reform would be to revive the idea of having judges jointly appointed to both the Federal and the relevant Supreme Court. This arises out of the pending unsatisfactory issue of benches comprising three Full Federal Court judges and […]
Insolvency practitioner independence – a ‘fair-minded’ or ‘uncharitably-minded’ assessment
The most recent decision on insolvency practitioner independence confirms an ongoing trend of treating the fair-minded observer, whose view is determinative, of being more knowledgeable than in the past. The 2014 appeal decision in Walton Constructions; ASIC v Franklin[1] concerned issues of independence of administrators arising from the source of their appointment. The Full Federal […]
ASIC’s 2016-17 Report – insolvency practitioners
ASIC’s 2016-2017 annual report has been released. The following comments focus on the report’s comments on ASIC’s oversight of liquidators at pp 66-68 of the report, including *ASIC’s winding up of 6 abandoned companies, helping 4 employees owed $240k in unpaid entitlements; **ASIC’s funding of 1 liquidator to recover assets and ban 34 directors; ***ASIC […]
