In the UK, if I want to know more about a company that I am going to engage as a supplier, contractor or consultant I simply go to the search functions on Companies House and search by Company name or Director. This gives me access to the company name, address, Directors and financial information. Just basic transparency that would probably assist many people trying to avoid, for example, dodgy builders.
Can we do this is Australia – no, because ASIC charges for everything beyond the most minimal information about corporations and officers and typically makes access to information a multi-step step plus process, involving form filling and third party “information providers”. Defensively, it says on its website, “we are legally obliged under the Corporations Act to charge fees for some products.”
A Treasury Paper published in 2018, “Modernising Business Registers Program Review of Registry Fees”, provides some useful background and commentary, including (our emphasis):
- Search fees were introduced to cover the cost incurred by the Government to retrieve the documents provide them to applicants.
- The cost of searching the registers has fallen over time and is expected to fall further after the move to a modernised business registry system.
- Search fees are potentially inconsistent with the Government’s recently implemented Open Data policy. The Open Data policy dictates that, where possible, the Government should publish data by default, while only charging for specialised data services.
- Current search fees certainly inhibit access to key business data and therefore limit possible business opportunities, innovation and economic efficiency. On this basis, reducing search fees would better align with the actual cost of providing search functions and would also be aligned to the Open Data policy.
And, absolutely nothing has happened in the meantime – time for the Government to make online searches of ASIC data absolutely free, as with the UK – ASIC has become more like a rent-seeker than a regulator.
fi
