Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Update

Parliamentary Joint Committee report on corporate responsibility

What are the implications for directors’ duties?

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (Committee) published its report on Corporate Responsibility: Managing Risk and creating value in June 2006.

The report provides valuable guidance in assessing the likely regulatory and policy measures that may be implemented by the Australian Government in response to the growing focus on ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) within the business community and the public at large. The growing interest in CSR stems both from widely-held concerns regarding sustainability in the era of globalisation, as well as the increased focus on corporate governance generally, itself prompted by a series of high-profile corporate collapses and scandals in Australia and elsewhere.