The corporate regulator’s handling of complaints from the public and whistleblowers will be scrutinised in a two-year Senate inquiry that will look at whether it is gun-shy in prosecuting companies and putting enough of its $800 million budget into investigating bad behaviour.

Against the government’s wishes, the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly backed a review of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s capacity and ability to carry out investigations and enforcement action in response to reports of alleged misconduct.

It was prompted in part by a report by economist John Adams that examined a decade’s worth of ASIC’s annual reports, with a particular focus on its treatment of allegations of corporate misbehaviour from whistleblowers.

By: Shane Wright

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