The regulatory regime governing Australia's corporate sector is set for a substantial overhaul, as the country seeks to promote itself as a regional financial centre and investment destination.
New legislation will make significant reforms to the nation's corporate law in such areas as takeovers, fund-raising, directors' duties and accounting standards.
A comprehensive review of Australia's business-taxation system is also under way, with the aim of making it more efficient and internationally competitive.
Australia is even re-examining principles of corporate law, such as whether a commercial enterprise using a corporate group structure should be viewed as a collection of separate legal entities or as a single entity with various components.
The soon-to-be-introduced legislative reforms - which have been developed by the Federal government's Corporate Law Economic Reform Programme (CLERP) - provide corporate raiders with a new takeover alternative.
Under existing takeover rules, bidders cannot acquire more than 20 per cent of a listed company's shares until they officially make an offer to all shareholders.