Anger grows over crowdfund farce

Anger is growing over “farcical” delays to passing the equity crowdfunding bill that would extend the regime to private Australian companies, with the scheme now unlikely to come into effect until the end of the year.

There are also concerns that cuts to corporate regulator ASIC will further slow the implementation of the scheme, which has been in the works since early 2013.

Amendments to the Corporations Act allowing private companies to undertake a crowdsourced equity funding round were introduced to Parliament last September. Despite broad support by the Opposition, the bill was not passed in the House of Representatives until February this year.

It has now spent three months in the Senate, and would not be passed until June at the earliest, despite expectations that the bill expected would sail through when it does.

Labor supports the amendments, and has only been negotiating on reducing the six-month royal assent wait time after it is passed.

While Treasurer Scott Morrison has labelled the bill a “game-changer” and an “example of the Turnbull Government getting on with the job”, it has still not moved to pass the in the Senate, nine months after it was first introduced to Parliament, despite it enjoying widespread support from the Opposition and industry in general.

The Opposition had successfully negotiated with the government to move an amendment to cut the royal assent wait time from six months to four months, and had expected the bill to pass before the Easter break.

But with the next sitting week not until June, the regime won’t come into effect until October at the earliest.

Matt Vitale, co-founder of registered Australian equity crowdfunding platform Birchal, said the continual delays are becoming increasingly difficult to understand.

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Source: Anger grows over crowdfund farce – InnovationsAus.com