Deepening Clouds over the Corporations Law
by Marion Hetherington
The High Court's decision in Hughes deepened the clouds that had already
gathered over the validity of the Corporations Law system following
Wakim. The Australian immediately urged Australia's governments to "rethink
and rework corporate regulation" to meet the needs of the economy: "To
support business confidence and investment, Australia needs a system
of corporate regulation where nationwide laws are enforced and applied
consistently" (The Australian, 4/4/00 pp 10 and 24). But in the ensuing
three months what we have seen instead is a power struggle between the
Commonwealth and the eastern states on the one hand, and the States
of Western Australia and South Australia on the other.
