The Treasury Laws Amendment (Modernising Business Communications) Bill 2022 has been introduced into the House of Representatives to allow for electronic signatures in the Corporations Act as well as electronic delivery of a wide range of documents in the Corporations Act and the National Credit Act. It also allows for electronic publication of notices which were previously required or permitted to be published in newspapers . Background.

UPDATE: The Bill lapsed in April 2022 as it was not passed when a Commonwealth election was called. 

Schedule 1 to the Bill expands the scope of the changes in the Corporations (Meetings and Documents) Act 2022 so that:
• all documents which are required or permitted to be signed under the Corporations Act can be signed electronically or in wet-ink;
• documents sent under Chapters 2A to 2M, 5 to 5D, 6-6C, 8A and 9 or Schedule 2 to the Corporations Act can be sent in either hard copy or electronic form; and
• companies are not required to send documents to a member where the contact details for that member are known to be incorrect.

Schedule 2 to the Bill amends the National Credit Act to improve the ability for credit licensees to give documents to consumers in physical form, in electronic form, or by the provision of an electronic postcard. .

It also facilitates the use of electronic payments.

Licensees do not need to obtain an individual’s consent in order to give documents to them electronically.

However, individuals have the option of electing the form in which they want documents to be provided, and can nominate the address to which they must be sent. They can communicate these preferences to the licensee in any manner.

For existing customers with neither an election or nomination in force, licensees are obliged to continue providing documents by the existing method and address, but they can change the method and address by notifying the customer. This means that licensees are able to switch from providing documents physically to providing them electronically, provided the customer does not opt against this.

A regulation making power is introduced to specify documents that, if provided electronically, must be accompanied by a warning regarding the nature of the document and consequences of not reading or responding to it.This power may be used for critical documents that could have serious legal or financial consequences if missed or ignored by an individual.

Diagrammatic Credit Act service address changes summary

Schedule 3 to the Bill modernises publication requirements in various Treasury portfolio laws including the Corporations Act, the National Credit Act, the Private Health Insurance Act and the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act.

Notices which were previously required or permitted to be published in newspapers can now be published in technology neutral manners.

Generally, the notices must be published in a manner which results in them being accessible to the public and reasonably prominent.

Date of effect
The Corporations Act changes commence immediately after the commencement of Schedule 2 to the Corporations (Meetings and Documents) Act 2022 on 1 April 2022.

The credit amendments commence the day after the end of the period of 18 months beginning on the day the Bill receives Royal Assent.

The publication modernisation requirements commences within the period of 6 months beginning on the day the Bill receives Royal Assent.

Other changes will commence on 1 July 2024 with the commencement of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Registries Modernisation and Other Measures) Act 2020.

If you found this article helpful, then subscribe to our news emails to keep up to date and look at our video courses for in-depth training. Use the search box at the top right of this page or the categories list on the right hand side of this page to check for other articles on the same or related matters.