An opening address by Jeffrey Lucy AM, Chairman ASIC to the National Conference of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Australia, 13 October 2005, Adelaide.
I am delighted to be here this morning, opening the Insolvency Practitioner Association of Australia National Conference in my home town of Adelaide.
Beyond welcoming you all to Adelaide, there are a number of important insolvency and regulatory matters I'd like to speak about this morning.
Firstly, I'd like to take a brief snap-shot of the current corporate insolvency regime, specifically reflecting on the progress ASIC and the profession have made in this area over the past few years.
Secondly, I'll discuss the importance of building effective relationships between the regulator and profession, and particularly recognise the strong results we've achieved through a constructive partnership with the insolvency profession.
And finally, I will speak about ASIC's future strategic focus on insolvency issues in light of the Government's newly announced insolvency reform package. This is a robust, integrated package of reforms that will go a long way towards ensuring that creditors, employees and small businesses are protected when businesses collapse, and that misconduct of company officers in the lead-up to a company failure are appropriately investigated and punished.