Senate Committee hits ‘obstructive’ ASIC

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

21 June 2023

A key Senate Committee has recommended that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) be forced to produce documents and other information revealing how it has conducted itself in relation to questions asked by the committee.

In doing so, the committee has rejected ASIC public interest immunity claims over closed cases and has threatened referral of matters to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.

An interim report from the Senate Economics Committee has made two key recommendations – both of them aimed at forcing ASIC to deliver on the information.

The chairman of the committee, NSW Liberal Senator, Andrew Bragg, said in a separate release that he believed ASIC was trying to frustrate the Senate’s role “to investigate porous law enforcement in Australia”.

He said the committee’s interim report contained a pathway to disclose closed case files in which ASIC had failed to enforce the law.

“ASIC has one main job which is to enforce the law and achieve prosecutions,” Bragg said. “ASIC has failed to do its job.”