The new federal corporations legislation is anticipated to come into effect on 15 July.
This will follow the commencement of relevant State and Territory legislation referring corporations law powers to the Commonwealth.
The Corporations Act 2001 and related Commonwealth legislation is the product of exhaustive negotiation between the Commonwealth, States and Territories. It demonstrates the capacity of Commonwealth, State and Territory governments to work cooperatively to deal with pressing national issues.
The legislation represents a great achievement of cooperative federalism in Australia. The legislation will overcome problems with the existing law identified by the High Court in the Hughes and Re Wakim decisions. It will put Australias system of corporate regulation on a secure constitutional foundation, providing long-term security for more than one million Australian companies.
The new federal legislation will in effect re-enact the current array of eight separate Commonwealth, State and Territory corporations laws as a single federal law. The new legislation will restore the corporations jurisdiction of the Federal Court and preserve the jurisdiction of the State and Territory courts.
To the extent it is not supported by existing Commonwealth constitutional power, the new legislation will be supported by the most significant reference of constitutional power from the States to the Commonwealth in Australias history. The final State reference Bill was passed this week.
The new law will continue to be underpinned by a detailed agreement between Australian governments.
The Commonwealth legislation is accessible now at the www.joehockey.com website.