While the CLERP 9 legislation was passed last week in Parliament, the Government has now decided to review more than 61 recommendations from a recent parliamentary inquiry.

Three Bills were passed as part of the ninth phase of the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program. The report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Service’s inquiry into CLERP 9 was released in two parts on June 4 and 15.

The legislation implements some recommendations from the first part of the committee’s report although now the Government will examine the recommendations of the second report.

The reforms, to take effect from Thursday, contain measures to improve corporate disclosure, strengthen accountability of companies to their shareholders, enhance audit independence and protect employees who blow the whistle on breaches of the corporations legislation.

The parliamentary secretary responsible for CLERP 9, Ross Cameron, said the passage of the legislation is a major step forward in corporate governance that will improve the transparency and efficiency of Australian business.

Maybe, but the Senate wants some changes. Australian Democrat corporate affairs spokesman Senator Andrew Murray says his party recognises that in some areas CLERP 9 makes considerable progress in terms of accountability and good process. “However, our amendments, combined with those of the Labor Party, will give the reforms some real teeth,” he said.

Some of the Democrat amendments include requiring disclosure of all executive and employee packages that are more than 20 times the full-time adult ordinary time earnings.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for real reform to ensure that future Australians don’t have to suffer the losses and systemic corruption that caused disasters like Enron and HIH,” Senator Murray said.