Why regulatory reform must prioritise Australia's productivity boost

We have set out director calls to action in a recent AICD submission to the Productivity Commission Five Pillars review. Under the first pillar — Creating a dynamic and resilient economy — the AICD has called for a whole-of-economy approach to streamline administrative and duplicative processes, reduce the burden on smaller organisations and reduce outdated and overlapping regulatory accumulation.

Better lawmaking will deliver better outcomes, and we have recommended processes including consultation, productivity and growth assessments, and post-implementation reviews as clearer standards in the lawmaking kit. Parliament and government should also bring a targeted focus to repealing outdated and duplicative regulations.

We have called for specific actions on corporate reporting (to lift and index thresholds) and the Corporations Act 2001 (to act on Australian Law Reform Commission recommendations, re-establish an independent expert body to drive improvement, and initiate a substantive review to drive streamlining over time).

The AICD also commented on the further four pillars in the Productivity Commission review, which cover national skills, digital regulation, the care economy and net zero transformation.

We highlighted directors’ focus on skills shortages and labour market inflexibility, and made recommendations on privacy reform and national guardrails for AI. Encouraging innovation and international competitiveness are key concerns the AICD hopes to see built into the regulatory approach, along with strong consumer protections.

Regarding the care economy, noting the strong representation of AICD members in these sectors, we flagged duplicative and complex regulatory frameworks, and recommended measures (such as a regulatory initiatives grid) to support coordination across regulators. We have encouraged the government to revisit and action the recommendations of the 2024 Not-for-profit Sector Development Blueprint on funding and investment. 

Productivity is a key theme for the AICD in our engagement with government. We will be working with our member advisory committees, key stakeholders and experts on reform initiatives under each of these priority areas.

ASIC public/private market review

The corporate regulator has announced initial steps to simplify listing on the Australian Stock Exchange. ASIC will run a two-year trial of expedited listing timelines with a fast-track process for informal review of IPO documentation. It will also include a “no action” position to allow eligible companies to accept retail investor applications during the public exposure period for new listings. The trial is a first step following ASIC’s consultation on evolving capital markets, examining the growth in private markets and decline in public listings.

The AICD supports strong and dynamic public markets and provided input to ASIC’s consultation. Healthy public/private markets are complementary pillars of a stable and competitive economy. Each has a distinct and valuable role to play in supporting Australia’s growth. Our comments reflected director concerns about the listed market regulatory environment (including regulatory accumulation and facilitative class action settings) and called for coordinated policy responses to these challenges. We also cautioned against moves to increase regulatory interventions across private markets as a broad-brush response, drawing on member insights and views.

ASIC has set out a summary of themes from its consultation. It will review key themes, including streamlining IPOs and disclosure requirements, settings for small and medium companies, facilitating different share structures and simplifying governance and director responsibilities “in a small number of key material differences from the private market”.

On private markets ASIC has concerns about targeting of retail and less sophisticated wholesale investors in private credit and lifting transparency and data for effective monitoring and supervision. We will continue to engage proactively on this issue.

This article first appeared under the headline 'Let's get moving' in the July 2025 issue of Company Director magazine.