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The Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth has released its report on the Prudential Regulation of Investment in Australia’s Export Industries, which examined how Australia’s prudential regulation framework interacts with operations of the country’s biggest export industries.
The Committee Chair, George Christensen MP, said that while a healthy financial system is underpinned by strong regulatory settings, it is important for law-abiding export sectors to have adequate access to funding and insurance, as they make significant contributions to Australia’s economy.
‘The Report makes 13 recommendations, all addressing the challenges heard during the inquiry. In particular, we emphasise that Australia’s regulators should work with affected sectors in issuing clear advice about risks. Some of the recommendations also deal with the influence of small shareholder groups in financial institutions,’ Mr Christensen said.
Other recommendations made by the Committee outline a role for the Australian Government in mitigating these challenges, including:
- Recognising that finance, banking and insurance services are essential services for businesses;
- Taking steps to ensure that banks must, at a minimum, provide transactional banking services to all law-abiding businesses;
- Directing banks to prepare a regulatory impact statement (or similar) that outlines the real impacts of a policy setting; and
- Working with the resources sector to create a self-funding insurance model that meets the needs of resource companies, contractors, suppliers and associated export infrastructure.
The full report can be found on the Committee’s webpage.
