The new Australian system of corporate governance: Board governance and company performance in a changing corporate governance environment

Abstract

This paper investigates the changing duties and responsibilities of boards and directors of Australian public companies. The corporate governance environment in Australia is currently going through a period of significant transformation raising the question of whether in this fluid and shifting environment company and board performance can still be assessed largely on the basis of profit, share price and dividends generated over the short term. These almost certainly will continue for some time to be the key metrics of company and board performance and it is hard to see how it could be otherwise. Nevertheless, a growing chorus of influential stakeholders is calling for the introduction of a more balanced and comprehensive suite of performance indicators that better reflect the realities of corporate governance early in the Twenty-first Century. The paper examines how these stakeholders are reshaping corporate governance in Australia and also calling for a reconsideration of the way in which performance is assessed.