Regulatory Complexity and ASIC's initiatives

In his opening address at the ASIC Annual Forum, Chairman Joe Longo highlighted the urgent need to address Australia's complex legal framework. He pointed out that nearly all Commonwealth Acts refer to another Act. In addition, there are over 49,000 definitions appear across Commonwealth Acts – and around 13% of all words in these Acts were affected by one of those definitions.

This complexity poses significant challenges for companies, consumers, lawyers, and regulators. Longo emphasized the risk this presents to ASIC's regulatory work and called for immediate action. To that end, he announced that a Simplification Consultative Group made up of key consumer advocates, business leaders and directors and industry groups would be convened to address some of this complexity. Their task will be to identify how ASIC can more efficiently and more effectively administer the law and provide more helpful guidance.