THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
THE HON STEPHEN JONES MP
ASSISTANT TREASURER
MEDIA RELEASE
Full Federal Court Upholds Australians’ Right to Justice
The Albanese Labor Government welcomes the Full Court of the Federal Court’s unanimous decision to strike down the Morrison Government’s attempt to undermine class actions.
Litigation funding and class actions provide a vital path to justice for Australians trying to uphold their rights against wealthy defendants with vastly greater resources.
In 2020 the former Treasurer used the COVID crisis as cover to issue a regulation that treats plaintiffs in funded class actions as if they are investors in managed investment schemes.
The Full Court of the Federal Court has now found the notion that funded class actions are managed investment schemes is “plainly wrong”, which calls into question the legal basis for the former Treasurer’s ill-conceived and absurd attempt to regulate funded class actions out of existence.
The ruling is a victory for ordinary Australians who have been harmed by misconduct by large companies or governments.
It is also a complete vindication for Labor which sought to disallow the regulations in 2020, and Labor members of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services who denounced the former government’s decision to treat class actions as managed investment schemes as “a particularly egregious example of ill-judged regulation.”
The Government will now consider the full implications of the Full Federal Court’s decision.
FRIDAY, 17 JUNE 2022
