Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several national and state laws were amended to permit businesses to execute documents electronically, through eSignatures, and hold virtual meetings to satisfy corporate laws. However, as restrictions begin to ease, the Australian Government has failed to confirm whether these alternate laws will remain in place going into the future.

This may not seem to be an issue at first but after a year of adjusting to new rules and procedures, pulling the rug from under these companies, and forcing them to revert to traditional methods, may heavily impact business practices with legal ramifications. Several law firms are advising businesses to revert to their previous “pre-COVID” practices. Gilbert + Tobin’s Andrew Hii has noted that because these temporary measures have not been extended or permanently enshrined in legislation, there is the possibility that certain meetings and contracts signed will become invalid for not following the requirements of corporate laws.

Digital signatures and virtual meetings have become commonplace due to their simplicity and efficacy, so it begs the question as to why Parliament has not permanently reformed these laws. Fortunately, there is discussion to progress laws relating to electronic documents as well as introduce permanent legislative updates to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). In this same vein, many businesses and organisations have self-published submissions in their support to permanently reform the law to update it to modern practices. These temporary measures have been extended before as COVID-19 developed so it is possible that they may be extended again. However, due to this uncertainty, many remain hopeful that the government acts faster to ensure that key business arrangements remain enforceable and continue to evolve going into the future. Do you think that the temporary alternate measures should become enshrined in legislation?