Released in April 2016 the Turnbull Government proposed significant reforms to Australia’s insolvency laws, as part of its National Innovation Science Agenda - designed to strike a balance between encouraging entrepreneurship and protecting creditors, and to reduce the stigma associated with business failure.

On 29 April 2016, the Australian Government Treasury released a proposal paper that, among other things, proposed reforms to introduce an ipso facto moratorium (Proposal). This reform was foreshadowed in as part of the Australian Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda.

The Turnbull Government’s much-heralded ‘Innovation Statement’ was released yesterday. It contained wide-ranging statements on reforms aimed at fostering innovation across a number of sectors in the Australian economy.

One important reform area is in Australian corporate insolvency law.

Corporate insolvency law reform timetable

The Innovation Statement includes important content for the reform of Australia’s corporate insolvency laws. It is part of an ongoing reform exercise which has followed this timetable to date:

On July 26, 2010, the Indiana Court of Appeals, in the published decision of Green Tree Servicing, LLC., v. Brian D. Brough, No. 88A01-0911-CV-550, addressed the issue raised by Appellant Green Tree as to whether the trial court erred by vacating its prior Order directing the parties to arbitrate their dispute, which involved a prior bankruptcy filing and a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.