Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A04041:section:1990:p29
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A04041
Segment Type: section
Provision Reference: s 1990 (pt 29/212)
Character Range: 78137–81114

ACT 1989

Principal Act

10. In this Part, "Principal Act" means the Australian Securities Commission Act 19892.

What this Part does

11. (1) This Part changes the Principal Act from an Act relying on the corporations power, and intended to apply of its own force throughout Australia, into a law for the government of the Australian Capital Territory in relation to the regulation of corporations, securities and the futures industry.

(2) The States (including the Northern Territory) may confer functions and powers on most of the bodies created by the Principal Act.

(3) For the purpose of the performance of those functions and the exercise of those powers by those bodies, the States (including the Northern Territory) can apply certain provisions of the Principal Act as their own law, because amendments made by this Part are designed to render those provisions suitable for application as a uniform law in the States and the Northern Territory.

12. Section 1 of the Principal Act is repealed and the following Divisions and heading are substituted:

"Division 1—Objects

Objects

  "1. (1) The objects of this Act are:

     (a) to establish an Australian Securities Commission to administer such laws of the Capital Territory, the States and the other Territories as confer functions and powers under those laws on the Commission; and

     (b) to provide for the functions, powers and business of the Commission; and

     (c) to establish a Companies and Securities Advisory Committee to provide informed and expert advice to the Minister about the content, operation and administration of those laws, about corporations and about the securities markets and futures markets; and

     (d) to establish a Corporations and Securities Panel, a Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board, an Australian Accounting Standards Board and a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Securities.

"(2) In performing its functions and exercising its powers, the Commission must strive:

     (a) to maintain, facilitate, and improve, the performance of companies, and of the securities markets and futures markets, in the interests of commercial certainty, reducing business costs, and the efficiency and development of the economy; and

     (b) to maintain the confidence of investors in the securities markets and futures markets by ensuring adequate protection for such investors; and

     (c) to achieve uniformity throughout Australia in how the Commission and its delegates perform those functions and exercise those powers; and

     (d) to administer national scheme laws effectively but with a minimum of procedural requirements; and

     (e) to receive, process, and store, efficiently and quickly, the documents lodged with, and the information given to, the Commission under national scheme laws; and

     (f) to ensure that those documents, and that information, are available as soon as possible for access by the public; and

     (g)