BCCM welcomes draft legislation to promote competition

26 November 2018

The Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals welcomes the Liberal-National Government commitment to backing Australian consumers to have more choice, by ensuring co-operatives, mutuals and member-owned firms are competitive and can access the capital they need to grow.

Today Assistant Minister for Treasury and Finance, Zed Seselja, released draft legislation on a new capital instrument in the Corporations Act for public consultation.

The new legislation when fully enacted will allow co-operatives, mutuals and mutual ADIs to raise capital and compete with the big banks, insurers and other investor-owned firms.

Melina Morrison, CEO the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) said: “New legislation is needed to make the Australian Corporations Act work better for mutually owned businesses, so that they can compete on a level playing field with other types of firms.

Over the last nine months, BCCM has worked with its member businesses and peak bodies COBA and FSA to try to positively influence how the Government implements the recommendations of the Hammond Review.*

Today we are delighted to see the final tranche of draft legislation that will help to deliver on the Government’s promise to our sector. The bipartisan nature of this process has been very encouraging.

We are looking forward to seeing the second part of this work with Treasury, which will create a new capital instrument that may be issued by mutuals, enabling them to grow and better serve Australians, whilst protecting their co-operative or mutual ownership structures.”

* Independent Facilitator Review Report on Reforms for Cooperatives, Mutuals and Member-owned Firms