Information brokers urge Coalition to keep Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s database in public hands for a ‘level playing field’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Information brokers have become the latest group to urge Malcolm Turnbull not to privatise the corporate registry held by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic).

In a letter to the prime minister, the group warned privatisation would create a private monopoly that could significantly limit access to corporate information in Australia.

It warned it would be “unprecedented” in developed economies, and would run counter to the global trend to make national business registry data more easily available to voters at little or no cost.

Asic should open up journalists’ access to information, not choke it Read more

The letter urged Turnbull to keep all Asic registry users on a “level playing field” rather than create a private monopoly that could control access to the data.

The group said it was “fully supportive” of the government’s December 2015 public data policy statement, and noted Turnbull’s “strong and consistent advocacy” over a number of years of the benefits of making public data freely available.

Signatories to the letter include:

Simon Bligh, Dun & Bradstreet’s chief executive



Ben Elliott, Experian’s chief executive



Peter Maloney, GlobalX Legal Solutions’ chief executive

John Ahern, InfoTrack’s chief executive

They say collectively their organisations are the largest users of Asic services.

“Any privileged access to Asic registry data by a private sector owner and/or operator – be it timing, access, or price – would be highly detrimental to competition, innovation, economic outcomes and commercial decision-making,” the letter said.



“Privatisation of a national business registry is unprecedented amongst developed economies and consequently introduces issues of economic, security and public interest.

“While price structures vary between countries, the recent international trend has been to make national business registry information more readily available at little or no cost to the market.

“In 2014, for example, access to business records at Companies House, the United Kingdom registrar of companies, was made free of charge, where previously users were required to pay a nominal fee of up to £1.

Journalists urge Malcolm Turnbull's government not to privatise Asic registry Read more

“According to the to the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the move would make the UK ‘a more transparent, efficient and effective place to do business’, the value of which was estimated in the region of £900m a year.”

The Greens and the independent senator Nick Xenophon say they will block any legislation that would enable the privatisation.

That means the government would need the support of Labor for the sale to go ahead. But Labor has not made a decision.

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said the government might not sell the registry into private hands but was still considering bids.

Earlier this month, 84 journalists published an open letter urging the government not to privatise the registry.

The activist group GetUp! also handed a 71,000-signature petition to the government calling for the database to be kept in public hands.

Peter Whish-Wilson, the Greens treasury spokesman, said there was no public benefit to selling and further commercialising the Asic registry.

“It is a treasure trove of corporate information that should be made available for public good,” he said. “No other country has privatised this data, and with good reason.

“The government should heed the concerns raised by both businesses and NGOs and abandon their misguided and ideological privatisation of the Asic registry.”