Federal Treasury has released draft regulatory reforms that are part of ongoing work to simplify corporations and financial services laws.

The amendments avoid unnecessary duplication between regulations and the Corporations Act and promote a single glossary for readers to refer to for the meaning of defined terms.

“They also reduce the risk of the definitions in the Act and regulations falling into misalignment due to missed consequential amendments,” an explanatory memorandum says. “This improves the coherence and reduces the length of the regulatory framework.”

The amendments, which follow proposed changes to the primary law, flow from a three-year Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry that has released two interim reports to date. A third report is set for completion by August 25 and a consolidated final report is due by November 30 2023.

Treasury is also consulting on regulations related to modernising business communications. The changes would allow certain documents to be sent in either physical or electronic form, and remove requirements to publish notices in newspapers in favour of a technology neutral standard of publication.

Details are available here.