NET ZERO, NATURE POSITIVE AND SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE? EXPLORING CORPORATE LAW REFORM OPPORTUNITIES IN AUSTRALIA

Around the planet and in our region, the actions and behaviour of large corporations is having a serious and detrimental impact on the social and environmental challenges facing our society. There are three basic areas in which this is manifestly the case. 

When it comes to the climate, some corporations, especially oil and gas companies, are continuing to be responsible for both ongoing fossil fuel emissions on the one hand, and for policies that undermine an effective policy response to climate change on the other. When it comes to the global biodiversity crisis, corporations in sectors such as mining, logging, fisheries and agribusiness continue to take actions that destroy terrestrial and ocean environments, and contribute to more and faster extinctions of flora and fauna. 

A third area where corporate behaviour falls well short of responsible conduct is in the area of business and human rights. Two examples where we see this happening are in the exploitation of labour rights, including involvement in modern slavery, as well as the lack of respect should to the rights of Indigenous peoples, including their right to free, prior and informed consent about projects happening on their land. 

We need more fundamental reforms to Australian Corporations law and associated business regulation in ways which would actually require the prevention and mitigation of social and environmental harms associated with corporate activities. Corporations law is important because it governs and regulates the way in which corporate entities make decisions, develop strategies, and allocate resources, and because it provides avenues to hold company directors accountable for their decisions and actions.                      

This paper, written by scholars at Monash University and commissioned by Jubilee and the Australian Conservation Foundation, surveys opportunities to reform Australian Corporations law and associated business regulation. It proposes ways which would strengthen requirements to consider social and environmental risks and impacts in corporate decision-making and which might better incentivise the prevention and mitigation of social and environmental harms associated with corporate activities.