I move amendment No. 6:
At the end of subsection (1) to add " and a copy of the abstract shall be available for inspection by creditors and shareholders of that company ".
SECTION 321.
This seems to be on the same point as that in Amendment No. 5.
This point is a bit different. In Section 321 some information is bound to be available to the creditors in the abstract and I think that is something that the shareholders might be given on the lines I have suggested in the amendment—that it would be available for inspection by creditors and shareholders of the company. The actual position at the time the abstract was being made available to the creditors could be very important and I feel that the shareholders should be safeguarded as well as the creditors at that stage, as regards any information that would be available. The Minister in his statement, on the Second Stage of the Bill, said :
Where directors are not in a position to make this declaration, i.e., where the company is insolvent, then the liquidation must proceed as a creditors' voluntary winding up, and in that event substantial control of the proceedings passes to the creditors whose interests are to a large extent given precedence over those of the members of the company.
It would appear that whatever assets the shareholders might have in the company the creditors would have definite preference. I feel that it is right to see that whatever assets are there the shareholders should not be completely pushed aside, that they would be safeguarded as this section could safeguard them when there would be any division of assets. There may be reasonable assets for the creditors but perhaps none at all for the shareholders. Some of the shareholders might be in very bad circumstances and might have invested their savings, as they sometimes do, in the company. Because the company is not able to make headway after a certain time, it goes into liquidation and then the creditors are the people who naturally have the prior claim. I thought there should be some safeguard for the shareholders as well as seeing what could be done for the creditors because there probably would not be assets for the whole lot.
Some of the Senator's remarks referred to winding-up rather than receivership with which Section 321 deals. We have already made provision in the winding-up part of the Bill for making available the fullest possible information and to the widest possible public. This particular amendment requires that a copy of the receiver's abstract be made available for inspection by creditors and shareholders of the company but if we look at Section 370 we find there is no need to provide for that because that section opens with the words : " Any person may inspect the documents kept by the registrar of companies, on payment of such fee . . . " Therefore the general public which will include creditors and shareholders, have that right conferred on them by Section 370 and the right will include the examination of the abstract with which Section 321 deals. And it goes further than inspection. A member of the public can require that a copy of or an extract from any document be given to him. Again, I suggest that the point made by the Senator in his amendment is more than adequately taken care of.
It is in this way, if he goes to inquire about it, but if he got it in the form I suggest in the amendment he would be kept very well informed. It might incur extra work.
There is no difference between what the Senator proposes in his amendment and what is already proposed in the Bill. His amendment reads " a copy of the abstract shall be available for inspection."
Unless the Senator has in mind that it will be available somewhere else. Certainly it will be available in the Registrar's office.
I am satisfied, provided there is some means of keeping creditors and shareholders informed. I think that there are certain difficulties sometimes when a company goes into liquidation; that it is a rather difficult and slow process to get information. Should there be any means whereby the abstract that is now available or which will be available, will be available on a fixed date? At the moment, I know of a case of a man who is a shareholder, or perhaps he could have been once a director. He goes to inquire what is the present position. He is told : "We have nothing final yet." And he again enquires after six months and is told : "We have not yet got the matter finalised." It would be better if he could have something by way of an abstract or is safeguarded in the matter as in Section 321—that is a safeguard all right. If he receives an abstract in the prescribed form, there is a safeguard there but is it sufficient that the shareholders and creditors would be aware of it? That is the position.
The Senator has in mind what the position now is, and the receiver in his abstract at the moment is bound to give comparatively little information. He can set out in one column, receipts, and, in the other, payments. The section now goes much further than the law obtaining up to now and about which the Senator has some misgivings. The position in future will be that the receiver must show the assets of the company of which he has taken possession since his appointment, their estimated value, the proceeds of sale of any such assets since his appointment, his receipts and payments during periods of six months, so that the amount of information we are now requiring a receiver to give in his abstract is much more comprehensive than he is required to give under existing legislation. Perhaps it is existing legislation that the Senator has some complaint about, but that legislation will have passed away with the enactment of this Bill.
I accept that. It does say " end of every subsequent period of six months "; information will have to be available under this. That would probably get over the complaints I have received regarding the position at the moment where no information is available even after 12 months or two years. Is the Minister satisfied that this section will give all that?
I am satisfied about that. The complaint the Senator has had is fairly widespread and the new provision is intended to meet it and I think it does, in effect.
I am prepared to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Section 321 agreed to.
Sections 322 to 375, inclusive, put and agreed to.