The Albanese Government has secured passage of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill 2026, strengthening Australia's business registers and enhancing the Director Identification regime.
The reforms will make it easier for Australians to answer a simple but vital question: who am I dealing with?
Australia's business registers are critical economic infrastructure. They help small businesses decide whether to extend credit, banks make lending decisions, consumers check who is behind a company, and regulators detect misconduct.
A key measure in the Bill will enable Director Identification Numbers to be linked to the ASIC Companies Register from 1 July 2027, significantly strengthening transparency and making it easier to trace directors across corporate entities.
More than 3 million directors already have a Director ID. Linking this information to company records will make it easier to verify identities and track relationships across companies, strengthening market integrity and supporting action against fraud and illegal phoenix activity.
The reforms are backed by the Government's $527.2 million investment to stabilise and uplift the business registers following the cancellation of the former Coalition government's Modernising Business Registers program, which blew out to five times its initial cost estimate and failed to deliver its intended outcomes.
The Bill also gives the Australian Securities and Investments Commission updated registry powers to support digital interactions with users, improve services, strengthen registry integrity and better protect Australians' information.
These reforms will support faster, more user‑friendly digital services, reduce reliance on paper‑based processes and strengthen protections against misuse of registry data, while appropriately balancing the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.
Together, the changes will support a stronger, fairer and more transparent corporate marketplace, helping businesses trade with confidence and making it easier for Australians to know who they are dealing with.
Comments attributable to Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, Dr Andrew Leigh MP
"These registers are the backbone of trust in our corporate system. They provide a reliable source of truth so that businesses, consumers, regulators and journalists can make informed decisions with confidence.
"Our reforms will make the registers easier to use, harder to misuse, and more useful for anyone trying to understand who stands behind a company.
"Trust in companies starts with knowing who is behind them, and these reforms make that information clearer and safer to use."
