ACSI Governance Guidelines Review 2025
Submission Date: 25 September 2025
The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to comment on the ACSI Governance Guidelines (Guidelines).
This submission by the Law Council’s Business Law Section has been prepared on behalf of the Corporations Committee (the Committee).
The Guidelines play a constructive role in assisting ACSI members to achieve value for their beneficiaries through environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in the companies in which they invest, and as an educative tool more generally. The Committee welcomes ACSI’s regular program of review of the Guidelines to keep them up to date.
This submission is on one specific aspect that the Committee already considered in the context of the ASX Corporate Governance Council, 5th edition consultation on the Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (the Code), and which is not currently addressed in the Guidelines.
In the Business Law Section’s submission to the ASX Corporate Governance Council dated 8 May 2024, the section supported the submission by Animal Welfare Lawyers (AWL) to include “harming animals” in the definition of ‘social risks’ (paragraph 4 of the Law Council submission). This would mean that the ASX CGC recommendation for an entity to disclose whether it has any material exposure to social risks, and if so, how it manages or intends to manage the risk (recommendation 7.4), would require a consideration of any material risks associated with the entity or its suppliers harming animals.
A copy of the AWL submission is attached. The submission is based on the Code reflecting community and investor expectations for the welfare of animals. It includes a discussion of King and Wood Mallesons’ review of a sample of ASX-listed companies and the impact of the companies’ operations on animal welfare.
Last Updated on 12/11/2025
Share
Tags
Most recent items in Business Law Section
Business Law Section
ACCC submission to Treasury consultation—Identifying potential new class exemptions
Business Law Section
ATO’s management of remission of the general interest charge
Trending Items in Business Law Section
Business Law Section
Forsyth/Pose Scholarship
Business Law Section
Santow Scholarship
Business Law Section