During 2010, there were loud cries for specific laws to be passed by the Australian Parliament (Commonwealth and State/Territory) on the concept of "greenwashing". Around the world, consumers and citizens are increasingly concerned about environmental issues and this provides opportunities for additional marketing angles. What has become known as 'green- marketing' has become popular as it attracts environmental conscious consumers to buy green products. Such marketing campaigns have been used to sway public opinion and to endorse an organisation's green credentials.
There have been a number of developments across Asia, including India, Japan, China, Singapore and Hong Kong, which provide a different paradigm from the traditional Australian comparisons with the United Kingdom, America and even Europe. There currently exists a significant volume of global research on the role of gender, as a part of the board composition and there are positive returns, with some caveats. This article begins to examine and question as to whether there are positive links to a broader concept of board diversity, including gender, age and ethnicity. One of the long term research questions for the multi-disciplinary study of corporate governance has been the link between good governance and share price or other measures of value. This has been quite difficult to establish in either the legal or finance or management disciplines, but there appears to be clear evidence of corporate sustainability where quality governance practices are applied consistently. The hardest question is whether we should have targets or mandatory quotas.
In the Preface to the 7th edition of this book, in 2020, we noted that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy has cast a long shadow on Australian corporate law. It spurred the debate concerning shareholder primacy versus stakeholder capitalism which continues unabated.1Similarly, it spurred policy discussions on law reform impacting continuous disclosure, company meetings, execution of documents and small business restructuring. Indeed, since then, we have witnessed significant law reforms that are covered in this edition.
In 2013, the media broke a scandal about the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) financial planning arm having corrupt practices. This led to a Senate Inquiry and by July 2014 there were loud calls for a royal commission. The next few years saw the momentum peak with CBA again being caught by AUSTRAC (the agency for anti-money laundering and terrorism financing) with 54,000 breaches of the law by way of their intelligent ATM network. Former High Court Justice, Kenneth Hayne, was appointed by the Governor General to conduct the Royal Commission in the Misconduct of Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, through 2018 and report by 1st February 2019. Public interest in the Banking Royal Commission (BRC) has been extraordinary, with over 10,000 public submissions, 30 background academic papers on the various issues, 20,000 exhibits at public hearings and over 4.5 million page views of the BRC website. The four major banks plus Macquarie Bank, make up half of the top ten ASX listed companies, with a combined market capital of over $400 billion. Most superannuation funds are invested in the top 50 ASX companies and the majority of home mortgages and business loans are via the four main banks.