On 16 November 2006 the Treasury released the Corporate and Financial Services Regulation Review Proposals Paper (the “proposals paper”). This proposals paper is a result of views received by the Treasury on the Corporate and Financial Services Regulation Review Consultation Paper released in April 2006. The objective of the proposals paper is to simplify and improve regulation in the areas of: 

• financial services 
• company reporting obligations 
• auditor independence 
• corporate governance 
• fundraising 
• takeovers 
• compliance.

Some of the key changes outlined in the proposals paper include:

• removal of the duplication of executive and director remuneration disclosure requirements between the accounting standards and the Corporations Act 2001
• increasing the thresholds for determining whether a proprietary company is ‘large’. Under the proposals, a proprietary company will be large for a financial year if either:
  • the consolidated gross operating revenue for the financial year of the company and the entities it controls is $25 million or more; or
  • the consolidated gross assets at the end of the financial year of the company and the entities it controls is $12.5 million or more.

Responses to the proposals paper are due on 22 December 2006. A copy of the proposals paper can be accessed on the Treasury website www.treasury.gov.au.

Deloitte Australia will be preparing a submission and we welcome your views in relation to the proposals paper. These can be forwarded to:

Darryn Rundell
Partner – Technical
(03) 9208 7916

Nikole Gyles
Manager – Technical
(03) 9208 7341