Bill
Corporations Amendment (Meetings and Documents) Bill 2021
passed, as at 2022-02-22. Treasury portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Treasury
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2021-10-20
- second reading — 2021-10-20
- second reading — 2021-11-29
- second reading — 2021-11-29
- committee — 2021-11-29
- third reading — 2021-11-29
- introduced — 2021-12-02
- second reading — 2021-12-02
- second reading — 2021-12-02
- second reading — 2022-02-10
- second reading — 2022-02-10
- committee — 2022-02-10
- third reading — 2022-02-10
- passed — 2022-02-10
- royal assent — 2022-02-22
Divisions
- The majority voted in favour of a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2022-02-10.145.2) "*that clause (c)(i) be agreed to.*" ### What is clause (c)(i)? > *(c) the routine of business from 4.30 pm, or after consideration of the [Mitochondrial Donation Law Reform (Maeve's Law) Bill 2021](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6697) concludes, whichever is earlier, be consideration of the following items:* > >> *(i) [Corporations Amendment (Meetings and Documents) Bill 2021](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6784)* — 2022-02-10, Senate: affirmative, ayes 41, noes 9
- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2022-02-10.177.1) introduced by Tasmanian Senator [Nick McKim](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/tasmania/nick_mckim) (Greens), which means they failed. Senator McKim [explained that](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2022-02-10.172.3): > *This amendment would prevent listed companies from holding wholly virtual AGMs. It's been revised to align it with the amendments agreed to in the House to establish a review into these provisions of the bill. By their nature, listed companies have a public responsibility and the parliament should ensure that their AGMs are conducted in a publicly observable manner. Allowing listed companies to hold hybrid AGMs will provide an opportunity for all of the issues associated with virtual meetings to be sorted out and for there to be a real-world confirmation of their purported benefits. Until then, wholly virtual AGMs for listed companies should not be allowed and shareholders should retain the opportunity to sit in the same room as the executive and the board to bear witness to exactly what they are up to and have the capacity to hold them to account for their actions.* ### What does the bill do? According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2122a/22bd037), the bill was introduced in order to: > * *allow companies to use technology to execute company documents such as contracts and deeds and to also sign meetings-related documents and provide those to their members and* > * *allow companies and registered schemes to hold hybrid meetings (which give members the option of either attending in person or remotely).* — 2022-02-10, Senate: negative, ayes 11, noes 28
- The majority voted in favour of a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2022-02-10.181.1) to pass the bill in the Senate. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill [for a third time](https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/how-parliament-works/bills-and-laws/making-a-law-in-the-australian-parliament/). Because the bill has already passed in the House of Representatives, it will now become law. ### What does the bill do? According to the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2122a/22bd037), the bill was introduced in order to: > * *allow companies to use technology to execute company documents such as contracts and deeds and to also sign meetings-related documents and provide those to their members and* > * *allow companies and registered schemes to hold hybrid meetings (which give members the option of either attending in person or remotely).* — 2022-02-10, Senate: affirmative, ayes 31, noes 10
Plain-language summary
No machine-written summary in this export.
Sources
em
em supp
em revised
billhome
frl act