Law reform
Keay’s Insolvency – a law reform launch
The recent launch of the new 10th edition of Keay’s Insolvency prompted some pointed comments about the current insolvency system ...
Major insolvency reforms for the UK – elements of US Ch 11 and schemes
The UK government has announced[1] major insolvency law reforms that would significantly advance the flexibility required for restructuring financially troubled ...
New family law court structure introduced into parliament
The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill 2018 (FCFC Bill) and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of ...
Uniformity in corporate law – the High Court’s grant of special leave in Amerind
A comment in the Victorian Court of Appeal (VCA) decision in Amerind may not have found favour with Justice Gageler ...
Proportions of bankruptcies – a factor of 8.8 in Australia, but only 3.4 in England and Wales
While waiting to see if Australia’s parliament decides to introduce a one year period of bankruptcy, down from the current ...
Guardianship and bankruptcy – NSW law reform report misses the point?
A father who suffered a debilitating stroke left his son with the legal difficulty, in a quagmire of state and ...
UK’s “small proportion of bankruptcies where there has been misconduct leading up to the individual’s insolvency”
With the Australian parliament about to decide on the reduction of the period of bankruptcy from three years to one, ...
Directors’ identities, their home addresses, and more
With Australia having just closed its consultation on allowing company directors to have a director identity number (DIN), it is ...
Gift card reform – “a GIFT, not an investment”? or “there should be NO expiry EVER”?
Federal Treasury has closed its public consultation on an exposure draft of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Gift Cards) Bill ...
Bankruptcy Bills to become Law?
The draft legislation program for the Senate for next week commencing Monday 20 August 2018 lists, among other Bills, the ...
One year bankruptcy and other changes – updated and corrected
[commentary of 10 August 2018 corrected and updated as at 14 August 2018]. With parliament having resumed on Monday 13 ...
Insolvency and the environment – some law reform suggestions
While we await some pending developments in the areas of tension between insolvency law and environmental law, including the High ...
A government liquidator, and more
Problems arising from Australia’s lack of a government liquidator have probably been hidden for some years by the choice of ...
Winding up a collective investment vehicle – submissions were due by 10 August
The publication of the 2015 book Insolvent Investments, edited by Stewart Maiden QC (LexisNexis), may have been a surprise to ...
The cost of unlawful phoenix activity – yep ….
PWC’s June 2018 report on the cost of phoenix activity – The Economic Impacts of Potential Illegal Phoenix Activity – ...
Consultation on director identity numbers – responses by 17 August 2018
In the 2018-19 Budget, the Australian government announced that it would modernise the Australian Business Register (ABR) and the ASIC ...
A bankrupt’s travel overseas
Australia is on the outer internationally in imposing restrictions on those who are bankrupt from travelling overseas; they are required ...
New Zealand’s changes to its insolvency laws
Proposed changes to NZ insolvency laws through the Insolvency Practitioners Bill, presently before parliament, are open for submissions until 24 ...
ASIC’s fees – how high and counter-productive
The article in the Australian newspaper of 2 July 2018, although typically low-brow in its heading – how ASIC gouges ...
Litigation funding of liquidators – the ALRC inquiry
The current law reform inquiry into class actions and their funding may also need to look at the funding of ...
NZ insolvency practitioner co-regulation – new law proposed
In a forthcoming article, I examine an aspect of Australia’s new regime for the (over) regulation of insolvency practitioners, which ...
Australia’s insolvency regime (in administration) – ideas for its restructure
In my preparation for a panel discussion at the major AIIP Insolvency Conference in Canberra on the future of insolvency, ...
The exploitation of cleaners
The Senate Education and Employment References Committee is to conduct an inquiry into the exploitation of general and specialist cleaners ...
The government is really serious this time – law reform protecting employee entitlements
Following the government’s public consultation process on the Reforms to address corporate misuse of the Fair Entitlements scheme consultation paper ...