A History of the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee and its Predecessors

Abstract

From 1983 until the abolition of the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee (CAMAC) in 2018, there existed an independent body to provide advice to the Australian government on matters of corporate law reform. The abolition of CAMAC was controversial. The purpose of this paper is to provide a history of CAMAC and its predecessors. These law reform bodies published many reports and their influence on corporate law reform has been significant. Yet no one has yet provided a history. A key part of the paper is consideration of the debates leading up to abolition of CAMAC. An examination of these debates demonstrates how the government made this decision in the face of very strong opposition from organisations representing business, shareholders and various professions including the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, the Governance Institute of Australia, the Law Council of Australia, the two major accounting bodies, the Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association and the Corporate Law Teachers Association. In the opinion of the author, the decision to abolish CAMAC has resulted in a weakened law reform process.

Keywords: corporate law, Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee, law reform