Whither co-operative federalism? An analysis of the Commonwealth government's plan for reform of companies, securities and futures legislation

On 17 and 18 September, 1987, the Commonwealth Attorney-General issued Press releases announcing the Government's intention to enact unilateral companies, securities and futures legislation. Such legislation would replace the present legislative arrangements based on the philosophy of co-operative federalism. The purposes of this paper are firstly to examine the political environment in which the announcements took place and then to comprehensively describe the terms of the announcements and critically evaluate them. It is concluded that the benign political climate which preceded the initial announcements was in the Attorney's view, a necessary pre-condition for change in the jurisdictional framework of companies law. However, having set such a pre-condition, the terms of the Attorney's announcement were not adequate to ensure the widest possible support. Opposition from all states except N.S.W. has therefore prompted an ill-advised 'compromise' announcement of 28 October 1987.