Parliament urged to act on regulators

Australia’s financial service regulators should be obliged to detail the number of times they have used their coercive powers either in their annual reports or to the Parliament, according to the Rule of Law Institute of Australia (RoLIA).

The institute renewed its call for greater transparency about the use of coercive powers by regulatory agencies after conducting a survey of their annual reports. The survey revealed that both the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had been among the least active in reporting their use of coercive powers.

The RoLIA survey results suggested that the regulatory agencies could be clearly grouped into those that had delivered significant disclosure to the Parliament and those that had not, with the Australian Taxation Office, ASIC and APRA being in the latter group.

RoLIA chief executive Richard Gilbert (pictured) said the institute was calling on the Parliament to exercise its right and duty to know the extent of the use of the economic regulators’ powers, either by requiring disclosure in annual reports or by requesting the information at estimates hearings.

He said that, as an alternative, the Parliament should amend the parent status of each of the economic regulators and insert appropriate reporting requirements.