17 August 2018

Progressing the Director Identification Number

In an embarrassing mistake Dr Andrew Leigh has wrongly claimed that the Turnbull Government is not progressing a director identification number as part of our wide ranging reforms to crackdown on illegal phoenixing.

It comes as the Turnbull Government yesterday released for consultation draft legislation which will not only deter and disrupt illegal phoenixing, but more harshly punish those who engage in and facilitate this illegal activity.

Dr Leigh claims that the Government's consultation released yesterday doesn't include a director identification number. This is true – but only because the Government has been consulting on the director identification number as part of our Modernising Business Registers agenda, which has been available for feedback since 13 July.

Consultation closes today, but Dr Leigh will be relieved to know he still has time to provide his supporting submission.

Of course, this is not Dr Leigh's first embarrassing mistake. In an opinion piece printed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 13 March 2017 Dr Leigh wrote that Australia's largest listed companies are owned by just five faceless investors.

The Sydney Morning Herald printed a piece correcting his claims (which commenced with the statement "Andrew Leigh is wrong") and the correction the Sydney Morning Herald ran in response remains there today, immortalising his embarrassing error.