Insights

Back in March this year we held a Roundtable with ASX, ASIC, non-executive directors, company secretaries, general counsel and CFOs on the challenges inherent in making announcements to the market about price-sensitive information.

The passage of the legislation to establish Australia’s first NFP regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), is embroiled in party politics.

There has been a great deal of angst over the reform to the NFP regulatory framework over the past months. The version of legislation to establish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) that was issued at the start of the year was deeply worrying, as it mixed up prescriptive detail about governance arrangements for charities and other NFPs with the statutory and enforcement powers of the new regulator.

For months, CSA has been plugging for the separation of the legislation establishing the new regulator, the ACNC, from the legislation governing the entities it regulates. It often felt that our commonsense approach was falling on deaf ears, but it did not stop us trying every method available to us to get the message through.

When asked when directors should disclose market-sensitive information, Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Greg Medcraft is quoted as saying: ‘Well, it says immediately. It seems pretty clear to me.’ What is so clear to Mr Medcraft is very unclear to the rest of us.

The hoped-for simplification of the remuneration report is not on the cards, but clawback is. As remuneration is one of the few windows onto board decision making, companies need to engage with investors early to step them through their plans for remuneration and to seek feedback before structures are put in place and cannot take into account any input.