Australia: ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations - proposed changes

The Australian Stock Exchange has published a communique in which it sets out a proposal to amend the Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations to require listed companies, on a comply or explain basis, to adopt and disclose a diversity policy which includes measurable objectives relating to gender. This will require, inter alia, companies to disclose the number of women employees in the whole company, in senior management and on the board. 

Australia: corporate governance standards and reporting

The Australian Stock Exchange has published an analysis of corporate governance disclosures in annual reports for the year ended 30 June 2008. The analysis is based on a review of 1,510 annual reports of entities listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 30 June 2007 and considers disclosure and compliance with the ASX Corporate Governance Council's original 10 principles of good corporate governance and 28 best practice recommendations (published in March 2003). In the media release included with the analysis, it is reported:

Overall reporting levels – the aggregate of adoption of recommended practices and of ‘if not, why not’ reporting – rose to 96.3% in 2008, up from 90.5% last year. This is the highest level since ASX began the annual review in 2004. The overall reporting level for the top-500 listed entities also increased, rising to 97.6% in 2008, up from 94% in 2007. The number of Recommendations with overall reporting levels greater than 90% (ie over 90% of listed entities adopted the recommended practice or provided an ‘if not, why not’ explanation) increased to 25 out of 28 Recommendations (17 out of 28 in 2007). Among top-500 listed entities, 27 out of 28 Recommendations achieved reporting levels of at least 90% (24 out of 28 in 2007)".