Australia: Mandatory CSR reporting not recommended

Source: Business Respect, 3 July 2006

A federal parliamentary committee has recommended that CSR reporting should remain a voluntary activity for Australian businesses.
The Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has stated that it does not believe that mandatory standards will lead to improvements, but that businesses will be expected to show that voluntary action can improve performance.

The chairman of the committee, Grant Chapman said that a number of businesses already did well when measured against international standards. But plenty of others still had further to go.

One recommendation that caused a fair degree of comment was one that suggested that companies should reflect on how well company bosses have prepared the firm for the long-term future in its remuneration proposals.