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One Nation joins campaign to push back against class action reforms
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party has joined the fight against the “hastily assembled” regulatory changes on class actions proposed by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Naomi Neilson
The Keep Corporations Honest campaign aimed at preserving class actions welcomed “good faith efforts” by the senate to rework the proposed — and “hastily” made — reform changes by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg into “sensible reforms”.
Spokesperson Ben Hardwick said the proposal was a good faith contribution that could go towards pursuing “justice for class action members” that have been hurt by various corporations and governments while ensuring they receive adequate compensation.
“One Nation’s proposal acknowledges explicitly that litigation funding is often the only way an aggrieved person or group is able to proceed with legal action. It is admirable to turn Josh Frydenberg’s hastily concocted regulatory changes into something that might actually bring some benefit to everyday Australians,” Mr Hardwick said.
Although supporting the overall message from One Nation, Mr Hardwick did note that he had some concerns. He said applying a hard minimum on the gross compensation would likely have unintended consequences of dialling up a risk to funders and making a range of class actions unviable.
He added that it would mean Australians with valid cases would not be able to pursue them and corporations would then “get off scot-free”.
Mr Hardwick said it was “hardly One Nation’s fault” that they are dealing with proposed changes by Mr Frydenberg who they say are imposing “stifling and nonsensical” parts of the reform under the cover of the pandemic and a recession.
“Judges currently play an active role in ensuring a fair balance between parties in the class actions and that role works well. But the best way to keep the price of anything low is to encourage fair and open competition,” Mr Hardwick said.
“That’s as true with litigation funding as it is with anything else. If any given litigation funder is charging too much, they should be undercut by many others offering a better deal to class action members.”
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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