Law reform
Some proposed personal insolvency reforms in Australia
With the federal government yet to respond to the PJC Report on corporate insolvency of July 2023, which recommended a ...
Senate report on ASIC’s investigation and enforcement roles – July 2024
The Senate Economics References Committee has issued its Report – Australian Securities and Investments Commission – investigation and enforcement, of ...
The 2023 Parliamentary Joint Committee Report and insolvency law reform?
While the federal government is yet to give its response to the PJC Report on Corporate Insolvency of July 2023, ...
Insolvency law terms – what do they mean?
While insolvency law uses many and varied terms to describe its various processes for dealing with an insolvent business, no ...
Insolvency law’s elephants in the room
Professor Jason Harris and I will be presenting a session at INSOL Academics Colloquium in San Diego USA on 22 ...
ASIC’s review of offence reporting – RG 16
In response to the PJC Report, although a bit premature, ASIC is reviewing its RG 16, on offence reporting obligations, ...
Bankruptcy and mental ill health
Justice John Logan of the Federal Court has raised some interesting issues in an otherwise straightforward bankruptcy judgment concerning the ...
Small business sole trader insolvencies
A recent newspaper report on the trend of insolvencies in small business was interesting for the reason that it acknowledged ...
AFCA financial compensation scheme of last resort
The federal government has announced [1] that a compensation scheme for victims of financial services misconduct will start from 2 ...
Report on the Franchising Code of Conduct – and insolvent franchisors
Further to my comments of September 2023 below as to a review of the franchising code of conduct, that review ...
New corporate definitions of director, officer and asset
Following the ALRC’s work on Ch 7 of the Corporations Act, attention has already been given to legislative changes tidying ...
Corporations Act redrafting – ch 5?
Some years ago, I suggested to a Treasury officer that Ch 5 of the Corporations Act be redrafted and simplified. ...
The new Administrative Review Tribunal and law for the relief of insolvent debtors
On 7 December 2023, the government introduced legislation that would abolish the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and establish what it ...
A winding up vs an administration – s 440A(2)
The situation where a creditor applies for a winding up of a company under the Corporations Act, and while that ...
Insolvency statistics 2023
Each of our insolvency regulators, ASIC for corporate, AFSA for personal, has issued its statistics for 2022-2023 right on the ...
Law reform – small business redundancy exemption removed
Among the many changes introduced by the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023 are those in Schedule 1 ...
The AFCA financial complaints scheme and bankruptcy – no appeal
Further to my case comment below, AFSA has, belatedly, advised that it is not appealing this decision of Justice Rares ...
“Shock horror – insolvent people don’t have many assets”
While we wait for the useful annual statistics from AFSA as to dividend returns in bankruptcies in 2022-2023,* an insolvency ...
Bankruptcy Act restructure – when statements of affairs are accepted
AFSA advises that the Bankruptcy Amendment (Discharge from Bankruptcy) Act 2023 (Cth), came into force on Thursday 23 November 2023. ...
Australia on a slide? [continued]
While I need to update my February 2022 comments below, and note for example that the government has now given ...
Slow pace of litigation and incomprehensible laws
Former Federal Court judge Steven Rares is reported in the AFR[1] as having made several comments about the justice system ...
Defining bankruptcy
The Bankruptcy Amendment (Discharge from Bankruptcy) Bill 2023 has been introduced into parliament. It has presumably been drafted by the ...
Insolvent trading in context
Insolvent trading is one of the many items for review recommended by the Parliamentary Joint Committee report on Corporate Insolvency. ...
Bankruptcy by mistake – who pays?
What started out as a minor dispute over plumbing work for $2,880 descended into the plumber obtaining a judgment for ...
