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Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment Bill 2009

This Bill covers three main reform proposals.

Firstly, trustee's remuneration. The proposal removes the old IPAA scale as a basis for default assessment for remuneration and provides a $5000 minimum default fee.

Secondly, penalties. The Bill overhauls all bankruptcy offences. There may be new penalties on trustees for late filing of documents, similar to the ASIC regime.

Thirdly, there are substantive consumer reforms including extending the 7 days moratorium under s54A to 28 days. This is a good idea because debtors should be given the opportunity to fully consider their options before they proceed to bankruptcy. Currently, a debtor only needs to give 7 days notice of his intention to present a debtors petition but if the changes referred to in the Bill become law, that will become 28 days.

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