What it does
The Governance Review Implementation (Treasury Portfolio Agencies) Act 2007 (the Act) is machinery legislation that implements governance review recommendations for three Treasury portfolio agencies: the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee (CAMAC), and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). The Act does not create a new regulatory scheme. Instead, it amends the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001, the Corporations Act 2001, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Act 1998, and the Financial Institutions Supervisory Levies Collection Act 1998. Its core effect is to re-characterise the legal relationship between each agency and the Commonwealth. Before the Act, these agencies held property, money and liabilities in their own right as statutory bodies. After the Act, any real or personal property held by ASIC, CAMAC or APRA is held for and on behalf of the Commonwealth (items 8(3), 8(4), 42(2), 42(3), 49(4), 49(5)). Any financial liabilities of each agency are taken to be liabilities of the Commonwealth, where a financial liability means a liability to pay a person an amount where the amount or the method for working out the amount has been determined (sections 8A, 146A, 11A). The Act also prohibits ASIC from holding real or personal property or money on trust; any property that ASIC would otherwise hold on trust is held by the Commonwealth on trust instead, though ASIC may perform all duties and exercise all powers of the Commonwealth as trustee (subsection 8(5), (6)). The Act establishes special accounts for ASIC and APRA, repeals and replaces finance and reporting provisions, alters the vesting of property on company deregistration under the Corporations Act, and restructures governance arrangements for APRA, including new provisions for APRA Values and an APRA Code of Conduct determined by the Chair. The Act also contains extensive transitional provisions in Schedule 2 that deem pre-existing property and liabilities to be held for the Commonwealth from the commencement time of 1 July 2007, and provide a constitutional safety net for acquisition of property otherwise than on just terms. All of these changes are directed at aligning the governance structures of these agencies with the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 framework, under which agencies operate as part of the Commonwealth rather than as separate Commonwealth authorities.