Bankruptcy numbers; bankruptcy reform
The numbers of personal insolvencies in 2025-2026 (13,465) have increased from those in 2024-25 (12,257) but they still remain low, compared with the 32,000 of 10 years ago. According to AFSA, three trends have driven the fall in personal insolvencies in recent times, changed creditor behaviour following the Hayne Royal Commission, changed debtor behaviour during […]
A US colleague in the Sydney Marathon
I do not normally cover sport on my website but I make an exception in this case because of the person involved and her significant achievements in the sport of marathon running. Judge Elizabeth Stong has been a judge for over 20 years on the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, […]
Diversity beyond gender in insolvency practice
The law was changed in 2021 to allow greater flexibility for a selection committee to allow a person to be considered suitable to be registered as a bankruptcy trustee or liquidator, despite not meeting certain requirements as to prescribed qualifications, experience, knowledge and abilities. The change was intended to encourage “a greater diversity of [practitioners] […]
Business reporting requirements – Productivity Commission inquiry
The government has asked that the Productivity Commission to undertake an inquiry into opportunities to improve the efficiency and value of non-financial business reporting requirements in Australia. It asks this from the perspective of reducing unnecessary regulatory costs for businesses including by way of improving the efficiency of existing regulation and reporting requirements. As the […]
Who is to operate and fund insolvencies?
A threshold issue in relation to the design and operation of any insolvency regime is as to who operates it and with what funds. Insolvency addresses a mix of private interests of the creditors and of public interests. Even the private interests have a public element in ensuring fairness and order in the community. Any […]
A funded preference claim with no outcome for unsecured creditors
A preference claim of liquidators against the Commissioner of Taxation (ATO) under s 588FA of the Corporations Act was assigned to litigation funders under section 100-5 of the Insolvency Practice Schedule (Corporations). That section provides that where an external administrator has already commenced proceedings, court approval of the assignment must be obtained (b), and the […]
Government delays in responding to law reform reports
The delay in the federal government responding to the 2023 PJC Report on Corporate Insolvency until now, over 3 years later, and then half-heartedly, is shown to be consistent with a lack of response to many law reform inquiries into the Corporations Act over the years, and no doubt other laws besides. In “Out of […]
Insolvency law reform – now patiently awaiting the Productivity Commission
Despite government responses to parliamentary committee reports being required within three months we now have a government response to the July 2023 Parliamentary Joint Committee Report on Corporate Insolvency after three years. Apart from the delay, some will find the response unsatisfactory in that the government response merely adopts the recommendations in the 2023 PJC […]
Moving
Michael Murray and Murrays Legal have moved Our new address is The Commons – Mezzanine Level | 388 George St | Sydney, 2000 mobile 0402 248 353 The name and range of the website www.murrayslegal.com.au and the email michael@murrayslegal.com.au are under review, but remain for the moment. The website will continue to hold my million or […]
Association of Independent Insolvency Practitioners – annual conference 2026
I was pleased to have been invited to contribute at two sessions at the AIIP annual conference in Canberra on 23-24 July 2026. The regulation and responsibilities of insolvency practitioners One was a discussion on the regulation and responsibilities of IPs, between myself and Professor Jim O’Donovan, well-known academic and author of numerous insolvency texts, […]
Insolvency regulation – of the practitioners, and the regulators?
Revised 17.7.26 Insolvency practitioner regulation has had its annual review in the UK under a co-regulatory regime that Australia thought not viable here. We have direct government regulation with an impressive looking but not quite so effective array of quasi-regulators; still split between corporate and personal. While having two regulators should have allowed a comparison […]
Firm regulation of insolvency practitioners
Insolvency practitioners (IPs) are regulated as individuals, not through their firm. In fact, the practitioner’s independence within the firm is required, as to the retention of their statutory discretions and authority under insolvency law, and as to remuneration and resource arrangements.[1] Back in 2023, I reported on insolvency practitioner regulation in the UK, where it […]
“Bankruptcy on a Budget” – what’s going on in the Netherlands is relevant here
An interesting article on Dutch bankruptcy law by respected insolvency academic Dr Jessie Pool[1] at Leiden University, and what she terms “empty estate insolvencies”, or “assetless estates” in our idiom, mirrors similar issues in Australia and may provide options for the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into barriers to business dynamism. The Dutch findings Dr Pool’s article […]
Legislative evidence of a barrier to business dynamism – s 588GAAC?
There must be some irony in the government asking the Productivity Commission, on the one hand, to inquire into “barriers to business dynamism”, one barrier offered by Commissioner Danielle Wood being undue risk aversion through complex and voluminous rules and regulations, and on the other hand, the government also asking the Commission to review various […]
Anti-money laundering guidance for insolvency practitioners …
How designated services apply to insolvency practitioners | AUSTRAC This guidance from AUSTRAC explains how Anti-Money Laundering obligations under the AML Act 2006 will require tasks to be performed by insolvency practitioners in relation to the insolvents to which the IPs are appointed; necessarily at cost. The guidance explains how professional designated services under table […]
Family disputes and a lack of trust
Family disputes can be very unpleasant and perhaps in particular when they arise from family members being left out of a will or there are other claims to the deceased’s property. In Whittorn v Siu [2026] NSWSC 666 (11 June 2026) the deceased father had left all his property to his de facto spouse – […]
Australian Productivity
Interesting comments from our Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood are going the rounds about our low economic productivity, with Australians’ risk appetite, or lack of it, as a significant contributing factor, leading to excessive “red tape” said to be tying up, for example, construction of homes.[1] As she writes, regulations, or laws, reflect our social […]
Anti-money laundering and insolvency – who pays?
I was closely involved with the introduction of the anti-money laundering legislation back in 2008 that included the first tranche of bodies to be subject to that law. As the 2008 Explanatory Memorandum then said the second tranche would be introduced shortly. From 2008 to 2025 nothing happened, except to Australia’s reputation internationally. 2026 In […]
Insolvency aspects of the Productivity Commission’s Business Dynamism Inquiry
In its inquiry into barriers to business dynamism, the Productivity Commission has now called for submissions on a range of issues, due by 3 July 2026. Call for submissions – Reducing barriers to business dynamism | Productivity Commission The comments here are drawn from an earlier post, in anticipation of what the PC would want, […]
Not cricket
Moving away from cricket [below, 2025], High Court Justice Robert Beech-Jones’ recent speech – Griffith Country, seeking to uphold the legacy of Sir Samuel Griffith – has been reported even in the media for what is said to be its controversial comments on selection of judges in Australia, inter alia, with comparisons with the United […]
Coercive control claim in a bankruptcy
A woman made bankrupt in 2022 was unsuccessful in having her bankruptcy annulled under s 153B of the Bankruptcy Act on the basis that the sequestration order “ought not to have been made” one reason being that she had been subjected to “coercive control”. Ms Britten’s claim was that she had been the subject of […]
Royal Commission into Antisemitism
The Royal Commission has yet to explain the why of antisemitism, the reasons for it, “infantile” as they might be, but with 16,278 submissions having been received, there must be some explanation. The government on 19 May 2026 released its response to the interim report of the Royal Commission. Australian Government Response to the […]
A productivity focused insolvency inquiry
The government has referred a productivity inquiry to the Productivity Commission – Regulatory barriers to business dynamism, one factor to be examined being “the design, operation and integrity of corporate and personal insolvency frameworks, encompassing consideration of whether there are net benefits of greater harmonisation, particularly for small business owners who may need to navigate […]
Insolvency law reform – some views
With the 3 year anniversary of Australia’s 2023 Parliamentary Joint Committee Report on Corporate Insolvency coming up,[1] and with the World Bank to make its assessment of Australia’s corporate insolvency regime this year, these views on the larger structural issues that are needed for law reform attention are offered. It is a work in progress. […]