House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Financial Services and Regulation, the Honourable J.B. Hockey MP and the Attorney-General, the Honourable Daryl Williams AM QC MP)

Chapter 1 - Outline

1.1. The Corporations (Repeals, Consequentials and Transitionals) Bill 2001 is one of a package of bills responding to the High Courts decisions in Re Wakim; ex parte McNally (1999)
198 CLR 511 ( Wakim ) and The Queen v Hughes (2000)
74 ALJR 802 ;
171 ALR 155 ( Hughes ).

1.2. The other bills are:

•

Corporations Bill 2001 (Corporations Bill);

•

Australian Securities and Investments Commission Bill 2001 (ASIC Bill);

•

Corporations (Fees) Bill 2001;

•

Corporations (Securities Exchanges Levies) Bill 2001;

•

Corporations (Futures Organisations Levies) Bill 2001; and

•

Corporations (National Guarantee Fund Levies) Bill 2001.

1.3. The object of these seven Bills (the new corporations legislation) is to establish a replacement legislative foundation for the Corporations Law scheme. This Bill:

(a)

makes amendments to Commonwealth legislation to take account of the enactment of the new corporations legislation (for example, by updating cross references);

(b)

provides for transitional arrangements for the ACT to complement the transitional provisions in the Corporations Bill (it is expected that the States will pass their own repeal, transitional and consequential legislation);

(c)

makes technical changes to the transitional provisions of the Corporations and ASIC Bill, including to take into account the High Courts decision in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Edensor Nominees Pty Ltd (2001)
75 ALJR 363 ;
177 ALR 329 ( Edensor ); and

(d)

makes changes to bring the Corporations Bill up to date with changes recently made to the Corporations Law by the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Application of Criminal Code) Act (No. 1) 2001 .

1.4. Further information about the background to the package of Bills may be found in the explanatory memorandum for the Corporations Bill.