Australian inquiry

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 17

Australian inquiry

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) MELBOURNE, March 29. The financial director of Conzinc Riotinto of Australia, Ltd, Mr R. Carnegie, told the Senate Select Committee on Securities and Exchange in Melbourne today that he regarded trading by a parent company in a subsidiary as “insider” trading*.

[The committee is investigating companies in which public investment is possible, particularly speculative companies. A report on the committee and its terms of reference appear on page 20.] In answer to a question from Senator Peter Rae (Lib., Tasmania) Mr Carnegie said that he concurred with proposed measures to tighten up on shorter selling and fuller disclosure of share-trading details.

Senator Rae asked if small exploration companies linked with brokerage houses were weakening the honesty and integrity of stock exchanges; Mr Carnegie said that he could not answer that question. The chairman of the com-

mittee (Senator Sir Magnus Cormack) asked Mr Carnegie to return to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices tonight to discuss with the committee the crash of Mineral Securities (Aust.), Ltd.

Late in the first session of today’s hearing, Mr Carnegie was asked by Senator G Georges (Lib.. Queensland) about the Comalco share offer to "friends of the company.” Senator Georges said that such an offer would be illegal in the United States, and he asked Mr Carnegie if he thought similar procedures should be illegal in Australia.

Mr Camegie did not say that he thought the practice should be illegal, but explained that the offer was part of the C.R.A. group’s Australian operations aim to become “more Australianised.” At the end of the session, Sir Magnus Cormack announced that tomorrow’s hearings by the committee would be at Parliament House, Canberra. The witnesses, he said, would be the chairman of the Sydney Stock Exchange (Mr J. H. Cooper), the directors of Leopold Minerals NL (Messrs B. H. Cutler, A. D. Treloar and G. D. Brown), and a former director of the company, Mr Robert Constable.