OPINION: Whatever your views on proxy advice, the way the government has rolled out new regulations for the sector without due process is shocking.
Australia’s business community might respectfully disagree on the need to reform the work of proxy advisers, but it should be shocked at the way Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has damaged these organisations byA week out from Christmas, Frydenberg has immediately stripped the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors , CGI Glass Lewis, Ownership Matters and ISS of their financial services licences covering proxy advice.
The first is the complete lack of evidence to support the reforms – something that is actually discussed in the explanatory statement accompanying the regulations, which notes that the 60-odd submissions received by Treasury “highlighted concerns by the majority of stakeholders that there was little evidentiary basis for increased regulation provided”..
The explanatory statement says the obligation is designed to reduce the possibility that one client of a proxy adviser may influence how the adviser’s other clients vote.The clear intention is to neuter the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, whose members include the increasingly powerful industry super funds and who the government may have as a sort of vigilante block.
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