Check against delivery

On my way into Darwin yesterday I passed three mighty boulders, with words of welcome in both English and Larrakia.

Here’s what they said in English: You’ve arrived – It’s good to see you – This is Larrakia Country.

And as I drove along, I was struck by the idea that this sign is more than just a welcome and an acknowledgment of the Larrakia people as traditional owners and custodians of this land.

It’s a testament to the strength, resilience, and tenacity of many Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and a reminder of the power of positive engagement, and of taking the time to listen and understand.

I am a lifelong believer in the power of words; and I’m honoured to be here tonight to share a few words with you.

I’d like to thank Nicole Brown for her Welcome to Country this evening, and for her generous words.

ASIC and the AICD have a long-established relationship of collaboration and partnership. I congratulate the Northern Territory Division Council of the AICD for its new stand-alone status and being thus on equal footing with other councils of the AICD.  

Both ASIC and the AICD are among the over 2,000-strong community of organisations across Australia committed to reconciliation, and that have a Reconciliation Action Plan.

At ASIC we’re proud of the work we do to support economic justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers and small business owners – and some of our work in this space has been a collaboration with the AICD in the Northern Territory.

One great example of that collaboration was a joint AICD, ASIC and ORIC forum, a few years ago, that celebrated First Nations governance.

So, thank you to the members of the AICD for your work in collaboration with us and other organisations – and thank you all, for having me here tonight.

Now, I’m aware that, in the world of public speaking, the after-dinner speech is high risk, It might best be defined as ‘a speech in which the point drifts in and out – and the audience drifts off’! So, to keep things interesting – and to keep our thoughts away from dessert – I’d like to perform a verbal trick of sorts for you tonight.

Are you ready? Alright. Here are three things I will be talking about tonight:

1. Regional engagement, collaboration, and support
2. ASIC’s enforcement work … and of course,
3. The American Declaration of Independence.

Now, at first glance these three things seem to have little or nothing in common. So, here’s my challenge: in the next 10 minutes, I will (I hope) connect them for you. At the end, you get to decide if I’ve succeeded or not.

Regional engagement

So - first, engagement.

When ASIC opened it office in Darwin, back on the first of January 1991, our focus was primarily on helping small business owners comply with their Corporations Act obligations.

Fast forward 32 years – ASIC’s jurisdiction today, our regulatory remit, is huge. No other corporate regulator in the world has the range of responsibilities given to ASIC. We regulate all companies, financial markets and providers of financial services and consumer credit in Australia.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of releasing ASIC’s 31^st annual report. This report highlights our work across this broad canvas.

Key elements in that work include addressing the growth in sustainable finance, the steady move worldwide towards climate related disclosure, the impact of Australia’s ageing population, the continued emergence of disruptive digital technologies, and the risks associated with those, as well as with poorly designed or mis-sold financial products.

Some of the outcomes we have highlighted in that annual report include our first enforcement action for alleged greenwashing, and how we’re disrupting predatory conduct aimed at vulnerable consumers and small businesses. It also outlines our actions against breaches of directors’ duties, our review of the cyber resilience practices of Australian business, and our ongoing focus on preventing and disrupting scams. It was, as ever, a big year.

So - we’re a national regulator, with a broad and diverse remit. But we don’t follow a standard approach across the board. We recognise the different environment and circumstances in each location, and We tailor our approach to both our work and to our stakeholder engagement.

What does that mean for ASIC in the Northern Territory?

Well, one important and enduring priority for us is identifying and addressing misconduct that impacts First Nations people. Rather than go through a long shopping list of the ways ASIC works to achieve positive outcomes for consumers and small business in the Northern territory, I’d like to tell you a brief story, about the need for engagement with the specific needs of a community:

Over the last year, ASIC reviewed data from some of Australia’s major and regional banks. That review showed that many First Nations consumers had high‑fee accounts despite being clearly eligible for a low‑fee basic account. In fact, we found that more than 110,000 consumers with high‑fee accounts, who were eligible for low‑fee accounts, had paid over $6 million in fees over a 12‑month period.

We’re now asking banks when they’ll migrate eligible customers to low-fee accounts, and whether they’ll remediate impacted customers. We’re also asking what changes will be made to ensure that tailored Indigenous services are effective, to prevent future harm of this type. We’ll be monitoring these issues to ensure changes are made.

The reality is, no matter which objectives we’re talking about, effective and tailored stakeholder engagement is at the heart of all that we do.

On that note, I recognise that many of you here tonight engage with ASIC regularly, on a wide range of issues; and I’d like to thank you for that support.

The essence of our work in the Northern territory is – cooperation, support, and collaboration.

I’d particularly like to thank the current and past members of ASIC’s Northern Territory Regional Liaison Committee. The dedication, insights, and feedback you’ve brought from business, financial services and professional bodies have guided and contributed to our regulatory prioritisation and decision-making for many years. Thank you.

And, of course, thank you to Duncan Poulson, our Northern Territory Regional Commissioner, whose passion for personal engagement is unparalleled and has been widely acknowledged in this community.

ASIC’s enforcement work

So, stakeholder engagement is a key element of our work. But the other side of the coin – and the second part of tonight’s magic trick – is enforcement.

I’ve been ASIC’s Chair for nearly two and a half years, and I am incredibly proud of the work we do every day. And enforcement is at the heart of that. It would be hard to find a single day when ASIC isn’t in a State or Federal Court somewhere in the country.

ASIC regulates a broad territory - 3.2 million companies, and a superannuation system that has swelled to $3.4 trillion. We oversee everything from the biggest takeover to the opening of a bank deposit or buying an insurance policy.

Australia’s wealth is tied up in financial markets that we expect to have integrity, invested in companies we expect to be run honestly, by managers we expect to be fair, while our wages pay off loans we expect to be written with care.

Over the last seven years, ASIC has overseen more than $7 billion of remediation, to an estimated 8.42 million Australian consumers, for failures we identified across the financial services industry.

Of course, we must be strategic and selective, given the volume of matters referred to us.

Our effectiveness is difficult to measure, given the wide range of stakeholder expectations and experiences – from how we scrutinise an initial public offering document, to the time taken to shut down a dodgy lender that has charged people a usurious rate to buy a television.

Asking questions

Now, this brings me to the final item on our list: the American Declaration of Independence.

Here’s where the trick comes in. And like with most magic, the solution is simple: the Declaration of Independence itself is what brings these topics together. Let me explain.

One of the key drafters and signatories of the American Declaration of Independence was Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was a philosopher, scientist, businessman, and politician. So, he knew a thing or two about engagement and running a business – and how to solve a problem.

Franklin found the key to all three was to stop asserting… and start asking. When presented with a problem, his first response was to ask questions.[1]

By questioning, Franklin could understand how each problem was like others he’d faced – and how it was different. Questioning, he found, was the secret to successful decision-making.

Questioning is also key when we engage in enforcement. Again and again, we have to ask whether our response is proportionate to what’s gone wrong - and will we have impact?

Now, as I’m at an AICD dinner, I think I have to say something about directors’ duties. And - since last night was Halloween, let me tell you how those of you who are directors can avoid a horror story of your own – and that is, again, by asking questions.

If you’re a director, ask yourself, regularly:

• Are you putting the company first?
• Do you have a continuous curiosity to understand all aspects of the company's core business and the risks associated with it?
• Are you challenging management to ensure your understanding is well-founded, and are you getting trusted professional advice?

So, too, questioning – not assuming – is at the heart of engagement.

As I’ve said, ASIC’s goals are national. But our approach has to be local.

Wherever and whenever ASIC engages with the community, we have to start by asking questions:

What are the unique concerns of this community? What does this community need from us? What does our general goal look like in this specific instance?

Conclusion

So, take a moment to see if you think I’ve succeeded in connecting engagement, enforcement, and the American Declaration of Independence. Perhaps bit of a stretch, but I hope so.

I’ve also recently been reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln. And Lincoln insisted on two things: finding the key issue; and starting with friendship.

You could find the key issue through asking questions, like those just given. But it was through building friendships, Lincoln thought, that we’re able to advance our course best. Lincoln loved telling stories as a way of connecting with people. I think he was right. Indeed, Nicole Brown’s moving Welcome to Country tonight was also a testament to the power of storytelling,

But what does that mean in practical terms? What does it mean for ASIC to talk about friendship?

It means collaboration, cooperation, and support. These are the three pillars of friendship.

On these pillars stands the kind of questioning I’ve spoken about. The questioning that builds the future. 

So let me finish with this message: Whether you’re a not-for-profit, a public servant, a company director, a First Nations business or community leader, the key to all of our work in the Northern Territory is a friendship of collaboration, cooperation, and support.

And ASIC is here – I’m here – to work with you.

Thank you.

[1] Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Annotated Edition, (Kindle Edition)