The timing of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s proxy proposal seems designed to cast doubt on his nemesis Ownership Matters.
The Josh Frydenberg proposal that independent proxy voting advisers should be forced by law to give public companies advance copies of their reports for fact-checking and a right of reply is quite startling from a free speech perspective.
What next — the Morrison government legislating that media outlets be forced by the government to give advance copies of their stories about politicians to registered political parties?
Where is the traditional Liberal Party support for free speech and free markets? As Ownership Matters co-founder Dean Paatsch argued in The Australian on Monday and The Guardian today, institutional investors should be allowed to procure independent research from whoever they like and the government has no role intervening in terms of how public companies and research houses engage with each other.
Read more about Josh Frydenberg’s proposal…
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