The Insolvency Law Reform Bill, which enhances protections for creditors and improves the efficiency of companies being wound up, has passed the House of Representatives today, Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer said.
“This legislation supports the Government’s commitment to modernise Australia's insolvency and corporate reorganisation framework,” Minister O’Dwyer said.
“The Turnbull Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda outlined our commitment to support Australians setting up a business, and move the focus away from penalising and stigmatising business failure.
“We are adjusting Australia’s personal bankruptcy and corporate insolvency regimes to provide financially distressed businesses with the best opportunity to restructure, or be wound up efficiently where the business cannot be revived.
“The Coalition Government is also committed to a strong insolvency profession that stakeholders can have confidence in.
“The measures in this Bill will make the process to become a registered insolvency practitioner more rigorous, while making it quicker and easier for the regulator to remove rogue practitioners from the industry.
“Creditors will be able to remove a poorly performing practitioner without going to court and appoint an independent specialist to review the performance of an insolvency practitioner.
“Finally, the Bill reduces unnecessary regulatory costs in the winding up process including through better facilitating the electronic provision of documents, and aligning administrative rules across personal and corporate insolvency.
“This reform package is estimated to reduce compliance costs by around $50 million per year, with savings expected to flow through to creditors in the form of better returns,” Minister O’Dwyer said.