ASIC firm on phone tap powers
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has responded to criticism of the way in which it uses its coercive powers by undertaking to re-examine its processes.
ASIC chairman Tony D’Aloisio has told a Senate committee that he has asked ASIC to prepare papers to enable him to “re-examine the processes” and “examine whether we need to be more transparent in reporting the way that the powers are used”.
D’Aloisio’s comments to the Senate committee follow on from concerns raised by the Rule of Law Institute of Australia about the number of occasions on which ASIC had used its coercive powers.
The ASIC chairman told the committee that the regulator did not believe that it needed more cocercive powers, with the caveat that it believed it should be able to share in information gathered by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) with respect to telephone intercepts.
Legislation enabling ASIC to utilise those telephone intercepts has been reintroduced to the Parliament and is specifically aimed at dealing with insider trading.
“We do not have within the commission a view that we need more coercive powers,” D’Aloisio said. “The one qualification relates to the issue of access to information from telephone interception that is carried out by the AFP.
“We have said to Government that we felt that it was important for ASIC to be able to share information through telephone intercepts that are carried out by an intercept agency,” he said.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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