The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) decision to extend its ban on covered short-selling has prompted strong criticism by the Federal Opposition.
The Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Pearce claimed the decision to extend the short-selling ban had been partly forced by the Government’s inability to regulate a disclosure regime.
As well, Pearce suggested that the Government’s legislative efforts on short-selling had proved ineffective.
“Although ASIC cited continued global turmoil as the catalyst for extending the ban until 31 May, a significant compounding factor has been the ineffectiveness of the empty Corporations Amendment (Short-Selling) Bill,” he said.
Pearce said the legislation had not contained sufficient detail on how the disclosure regime should operate, and this meant the regulator had been continually forced to issue orders.
“The bare-bones legislation, heavily reliant on non-existent regulation, still fails to specify how the disclosure regime would operate in terms of stock measure and regularity,” he said.
