News Update

Month: Sep

• Powerful coalition calls for major reform of not-for-profit fundraising rules

  19/09/2016

  A powerful coalition of peak bodies is calling on all Australian governments to provide charities and other not-for-profits (NFPs) with a nationally-consistent fundraising regime that will deliver more than $15 million in savings every year for charities alone.

  Currently NFPs are forced to waste significant amounts of time and money to meet outdated and fragmented fundraising laws that differ considerably across Australia.

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• NZ consults on its governance code

  15/09/2016

  Updates to the NZX Corporate Governance Code have been issued for consultation — the first substantive revisions since it was introduced in 2003. The consultation paper notes that there are fragmented reporting requirements for issuers at present, and one of the aims of the updated code is to ensure that the NZX code is the primary source of corporate governance guidelines for NZX Main Board issuers. The key changes cover diversity, ESG reporting, health and safety reporting and remuneration reporting. All new recommendations sit within the current ‘comply or explain’ framework.

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• Movement in executive remuneration

  15/09/2016

  In Australia, a new report from ACSI found that CEO remuneration in ASX200 companies has declined since the GFC, and new CEOs are being hired on lower pay packages. While fixed pay declined, however, the report found 93 per cent of ASX100 CEOs received a bonus in 2015, the largest proportion since 2008. Meanwhile, in the UK, a major fund manager has announced that it has done away with bonuses, saying bonuses had proved to be ‘largely ineffective’ and can lead to ‘wrong behaviours’. Employees received an increase to their base pay and benefits to compensate for the loss. 

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• Investors put directors on notice on climate change risk

  15/09/2016

  Blackrock Investment Institute has released a new report titled Adapting portfolios to climate change — Implications and strategies for all investors, which states that investors can no longer ignore climate change, regardless of whether they question the science. This accords with analysis in Australia that directors’ duties must see climate change risk factored into decision-making, whether or not the director believes in the science, given that the market indicates it sees it as a risk to the value of the investment; ongoing policy and regulation decisions related to climate change; as well as the widespread reporting on the subject which means a director should be informed.

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