Australia: Company boards and directors: corporate social responsibility

The UTS Centre for Corporate Governance has published the results of a three year study of the role and responsibilities of company boards and directors. The project was funded by the Australian Research Council and Dibbs Abbott Stillman Lawyers. The report is generally supportive of the Australian corporate governance framework but in one respect it reports an area of concern:

“The one field in which Australian business appears to be falling behind the performance of other countries is in the reporting of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. The research discovered many examples of extensive commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability in both large corporations and in small enterprises. Though the balance of opinion remains in favour of voluntary rather than mandatory reporting, the lack of a framework for reporting and greater impetus to use this, suggests businesses here will not be reporting as comprehensively as in the UK, Europe and Japan”..

The report is available here.