Inquiries conferences and reports
World Bank’s 2026 B-Ready review of Australian business insolvency and other laws
Next year, 2026, Australia will be the subject of a review by the World Bank under its new B-Ready assessment ...
Arbitration and insolvency – an arbitration week seminar
I was pleased to attend a panel session at Norton Rose Fulbright on 15 October 2025 – Breaking bread: slicing ...
Maybe we should just repeal s 588G – insolvent trading?
The law of insolvent trading under s 588G of the Corporations Act seems eternally unsatisfactory and always open to review. ...
Means to accelerate our ability to share and use data productively
Having myself nearly said enough over the years about the lack of data on the operation of the insolvency system, ...
Have corporate rescue laws gone too far? Sydney Law School seminar review
This reports on a review by Dr Arthur Emmett, former Federal Court Judge, of a Sydney Law School seminar questioning ...
The interaction of insolvency law and competition policy
My recent article in the Insolvency Law Bulletin concerns what has been described as the clash between market competition policy ...
Small business – Qué?
Many small businesses seem to operate with the owners oblivious to the legal structure through which they conduct their business. ...
Legislating in the dark – continued – IMF Report
The 2023 Parliamentary Joint Committee Report on Corporate Insolvency called for the collection and analysis of data in advance of ...
ASIC’s report on Part 5.3B – small corporate business restructuring
The small corporate business ‘restructuring’ process under Part 5.3B of the Corporations Act was introduced in 2021, in some criticized ...
Treasury’s role in insolvency law reform
With Treasury now comprising Ministers well qualified in economics,[1] and with a government focused on competition, economic dynamism and productivity, ...
A quarter of new bankruptcies to go to female trustees
The personal insolvency regulator, AFSA, has announced it will increase its gender equity target in the allocation of bankrupt estates ...
INSOL Academics Barcelona – competition and insolvency law
I was pleased to have presented my topic on the intersection between competition policy and insolvency and rescue law before ...
The economics of insolvency – the pain of liquidation is one way to get economic growth
Pre INSOL post I am pleased to have had my topic accepted for presentation at the INSOL Academics Colloquium in ...
Insolvency & competition law – INSOL Academics – 22.5.25 – References
Insolvency and competition law – parallel universes, serving contradictory goals, without coordination – INSOL Academics Colloquium 22 May 2025, Barcelona– Michael ...
Audit of ATO small business debt recovery
The ANAO is currently conducting an audit of the ATO to assess the effectiveness of the ATO’s management of small ...
A future where “tax just happens”
A Capability Review of the Australian Taxation Office has been conducted which foreshadows a future where tax obligations are paid ...
Insolvency law – has corporate rescue gone too far? 30 April, Sydney Law School
The Ross Parsons Centre for Commercial, Corporate and Taxation Law of Sydney University Law School is hosting a debate on ...
Reserve Bank report on insolvency numbers’ “little threat to financial stability”.
Increases or decreases in the number of insolvencies in Australia are used, particularly now, as some sort of political weapon ...
Insolvency reform, phoenix misconduct – where to begin…
Insolvency law reform inquiries into phoenix company misconduct are happening or are proposed. Where are we to begin? Soon after ...
Dramatic fall in insolvency numbers
The number of personal insolvencies fell by over 28% in the period July to December 2024, with big falls in ...
Annual [2023-2024] personal insolvency statistics
Dividend payments to creditors in bankruptcies in 2023-24 averaged only 2.42c in the dollar. Registered bankruptcy trustees took in more ...
Personal insolvency numbers remain low – AFSA report
AFSA has released a useful report on personal insolvencies in 2023-2024, with some predictions as to the future. State of ...
The costs of insolvency practitioner regulation
ASIC has released its analysis of the costs of regulation of liquidators; AFSA has issued comparable analyses of the costs ...
Financial abuse report – corporate, tax, bankruptcy and family law conduct
Among the 61 recommendations of the Report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services – Financial ...