In a speech to the Small Business Association of Australia’s International Small Business Summit, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission set out its multi-year regulatory simplification program aimed at making regulatory information easier to find and understand and improving how businesses interact with ASIC, including through a major modernisation of business registry services. It also flagged that, while mandatory climate-related financial disclosure requirements apply to larger entities, some small businesses may face indirect information requests through supply chains and will need time and support to prepare. Key measures highlighted included a redesigned ASIC website with improved navigation and search and the removal of more than 9,000 pages of duplicated content, a new regulatory resources search bringing together forms, instruments and regulatory documents, and a “business basics” area. ASIC is also considering ways to better structure regulatory materials and is developing a regulatory roadmap for small-company directors covering the lifecycle of starting, running, closing and reinstating a company. On registry interactions, the RegistryConnect program is intended to stabilise, secure and modernise ASIC registers, improving reliability and registry data integrity; interim steps include accepting email lodgements for forms that cannot be lodged online, allowing electronic signatures on all ASIC forms, upgrading the mainframe supporting online registry services, reducing scheduled downtime, and launching a new professional registers search with enhanced functionality and a payment process. Next phases include improvements to online company registration and lodgement, interaction tracking and secure digital payments, expanding streamlined digital services to additional professional registrations and licence types, strengthening authentication to reduce fraudulent or misleading lodgements, and linking director IDs to the companies register to improve traceability of director–company relationships. On climate reporting, ASIC noted the first reports from the largest cohort are expected around March 2026 and that the regime applies to large companies meeting two of three thresholds: revenue over AUD 50 million, assets over AUD 25 million and/or more than 100 employees. It highlighted that small businesses may be asked for information such as energy records by larger customers, suppliers or financial institutions, and said it is developing educational materials with the University of Technology Sydney and the Australian Accounting Standards Board, with roadshows planned once those materials are completed; engagement on registry service design is also continuing through the Registry Business Advisory Group alongside work with Treasury on policy and law reform.

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