Register of disqualified officers

How people become disqualified

A person can be disqualified in different ways:

• automatic disqualification
• disqualification by the court
• disqualification by the Registrar.

Automatic disqualification

A person is automatically disqualified if they:

• signed a personal insolvency agreement and did not keep to it
• were sentenced to 3 months or more in prison for an offence involving dishonesty in the last 5 years
• were convicted of certain serious offences under the CATSI Act (or a foreign law) that are punishable by imprisonment for more than 12 months 
• are disqualified under the Corporations Act.

A person is usually discharged from bankruptcy 3 years and 1 day after their documents were filed with the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA). 

Learn more about disqualification under the Corporations Act with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). You can also look at their list of disqualified people.

Disqualification by the court

A person can be disqualified by the court for:

• breaching a civil penalty provision
• poor financial management
• repeatedly breaking the law.

Breaching a civil penalty provision

Under the CATSI Act and the Corporations Act, there are civil penalty provisions for:

• duties of directors and other officers
• related party rules
• record-keeping and reports
• trading while insolvent (they had debts due and couldn’t pay them).

The Registrar can ask the court to disqualify a person if:

• the person broke a civil penalty provision, for example, using a position of power for personal benefit or to disadvantage the corporation and its members
• the court is satisfied the disqualification is justified.

The court can order disqualification for any amount of time it deems appropriate.

Poor financial management

The Registrar can ask the court to disqualify a person if they have been an officer of 2 or more corporations that:

• became insolvent
• were unable to pay their debts in the past 7 years.

The court must be satisfied that the corporations failed due to poor management.

The court can order disqualification for up to 20 years.

Repeatedly breaking the law

The Registrar can ask the court to disqualify a person if:

• the person (or the corporations where the person was an officer) broke the law under the CATSI Act or the Corporations Act more than once and didn’t do enough to prevent laws being broken
• the person was an officer of a body corporate other than an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation and acted against the duties of care, diligence and good faith under the CATSI Act.

The court can order disqualification for any amount of time it thinks appropriate.

Disqualification by the Registrar

The Registrar can disqualify a person if that person has been an officer of 2 or more corporations that:

• had to wind up in the past 7 years 
• had a liquidator lodge reports stating those corporations could not pay their debts.

Before disqualifying the person, the Registrar must give them:

• a written notice asking why they should not be disqualified
• an opportunity to be heard.

The Registrar can disqualify the person for up to 5 years, which starts from when the notice is served.

Permission to manage a corporation

The court or the Registrar can grant permission to a disqualified person to manage an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation. This will depend on the original reason for disqualification.

Penalties

It is an offence for a disqualified person to manage an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation. 

The maximum penalty for this offence is $9,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both.