The Commonwealth Government has released for consultation 2 sets of exposure draft regulations to help reduce the complexity of Australia’s corporations and financial services laws: the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) regulations and the Modernising Business Communications (MBC) regulations.

The ALRC Regulations would create a single glossary of defined terms in section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001.

The ALRC Regulations also partially implement 3 recommendations from the ALRC’s Interim Report B to:

• repeal redundant and spent regulations;
• remove substantive obligations out of definitions; and
• amend unclear or incorrect regulations.

The ALRC Regulations also make further miscellaneous amendments to improve navigability and comprehension.

The draft MBC Regulations make amendments to Treasury portfolio laws to:

• improve their technology neutrality, including ensuring that certain documents can be sent in either physical or electronic form; and
• remove prescriptive requirements to publish notices in newspapers in favour of a technology neutral standard of publication.

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