Labor again showed its duplicitous hand today by blocking a regulation that would have stopped special interest groups from hijacking company meetings.
"Senator Stephen Conroy has again displayed his hypocrisy when he runs around the country's boardrooms pledging support for good business practice.
"At the same time he is doing business and Australia's 5 million shareholders in the eye with a time-wasting stunt that appeals to extremists.
"Surely now, Australia's business leaders will realise that they are dealing with a fraud who talks from one side of his mouth in the boardroom and the other side of his mouth in the Parliament.
"This motion of disallowance by an extremist interest group in the Senate undermines what had previously been bipartisan attempts to provide Australian businesses with a reasonable regulatory environment governing the management of general meetings.
"Extremism now returns to the Senate - at a cost to Australia's 5 million shareholders."
Background
The Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities and the Companies and Securities Advisory Committee have reviewed the parts of the Corporations Law dealing with the calling of shareholder meetings.
This was in response to concerns that the relevant parts of the law could be abused and result in unnecessary and substantial cost, particularly for large companies with substantial number of shareholders.
Both groups feel the current rule should be changed. As an interim measure, and in response to these concerns, the Government has put in place a regulation prescribing a 5% threshold of members to call a company meeting.
By prescribing a 5% threshold, the interests of both minority shareholders and companies are appropriately balanced