In “Duties of Efficiency, Honesty and Fairness Post-Westpac: A New Beginning for Financial Services Licensees and the Courts?”, Joshua Anderson considers the scope and application of s 912A(1)(a) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) – which imposes on financial services providers the obligation to act “efficiently, honestly and fairly”.

In a wide-ranging review, including considering the legislative and case law history of the duty and analysing its elements and underlying values, Anderson concludes the duty has now become “weaponised”. Suggested pivotal factors accounting for this development, include the Full Federal Court’s decision in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Westpac Securities Administration Ltd (2019) 373 ALR 455; [2019] FCAFC 187, and an ASIC apparently emboldened by new powers and straining at the leash following the revelations at the Banking Royal Commission of widespread financial abuse by financial services providers actuated by “dishonesty and greed, in the pursuit of short-term gain”.

Cary Di Lernia analyses the reporting practices of ASX200 companies in relation to climate-related risks in “Climate Risk Disclosure: Tracking the Uptake of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Recommendations in the Australian Market”. He evaluates the quality of such disclosures in Australia – “a country”, he says “already experiencing some of the extremes that climate-related risks pose”.

Di Lernia urges that companies do “not take their time” in developing their internal reporting systems to make them TCFD-compliant. “Until the overwhelming majority of companies in the market report at least to this standard, and do so within their annual reports, the mechanism by which the TCFD’s recommendations are to enlist the corporate world in the transition to a carbon restricted climate-challenged world will not be enlivened,” he says.

C&SLJ 37.7 also contains its share of COVID-related material too: “2020 Vision: Current Reflections and Stakeholder Governance in a Post-Covid-19 World” by Jean du Plessis and Andrea Anastasi; and “Capital Raising by Companies During the COVID-19 Crisis: An Analysis of Recent ASX Reforms” by Lloyd Freeburn and Ian Ramsay.