✦ Plain-English Summary

Treasury Laws Amendment (Registries Modernisation and Other Measures) 2019

What it does

This law updates how Australia's business registries work, following the creation of a new unified Commonwealth Registers system. It makes technical changes to how the government tracks businesses, their directors, and consumer credit providers — essentially bringing outdated registration rules into line with modern systems.

Why it matters

If you're starting a business, applying for credit, or dealing with company registrations, this modernises the backend systems that process your applications and store your information. It's mainly a housekeeping exercise to prevent confusion between old and new registration systems, though it does introduce director identification numbers to improve corporate transparency.

Key details

• Director ID numbers: Companies must now register unique identification numbers for their directors — similar to a tax file number for company leaders. This is designed to make it harder to hide behind shell companies.
• Phased rollout: Most changes come into effect on dates to be set by the government (via Proclamation), with a deadline of 24 months maximum. This gives businesses time to adapt.
• Affected groups: Business owners, company directors, credit providers, and anyone registering an Australian Business Name need to be aware these systems are changing, though most of the complexity is handled by government agencies.

Official Description

Introduced with the Commonwealth Registers Bill 2019, Business Names Registration (Fees) Amendment (Registries Modernisation) Bill 2019, Corporations (Fees) Amendment (Registries Modernisation) Bill 2019 and National Consumer Credit Protection (Fees) Amendment (Registries Modernisation) Bill 2019 to create a new Commonwealth business registry regime, the bill: amends 12 Acts to bring 35 existing business registers into the new regime; and Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 , Corporations Act 2001 , Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and Taxation Administration Act 1953 to introduce a director identification number requirement.

Committee Referrals

Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills; Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.