Attention focused on committee

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 22

Attention focused on committee

fA'.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, March 29. The circumstances of the latest suspension on Australian stock exchanges, Leopold Minerals NL, have focused attention on an important government body, Australia’s Senate Committee on Securities and Exchange.

Since its establishment in March last year, the committee has investigated every major share trouble on Australian stock exchanges, gathering comprehensive data on share trading and stock market operations in Australia. At its inception, it was authorised by the Senate to inquire into share dealings, the incidence of some share practices, and the feasibility of establishing an Australian Securities and Exchange Commission. The committee has been given almost unlimited power to demand the appearance of witnesses, and can call for any documents it wishes. Any refusal to appear before the committee or table a document can be regarded as a breach of Parliamentary privilege, and is subject to the discipline of the Senate. Unlike other Senate Committees it has a full-time academic lawyer working on j its secretariat as well as a full-time economist The committee, under the I chairmanship of Sir Magnus

'Cormack, hopes to present at least an interim report on the state and need of Australia’s shares and securities market by June 30. Concerning the Leopold affair. Sir Magnus Cormack said it was ‘‘symptomatic of some sort of aberrant behaviour that seems to have been developing in stock exchanges in the last 12 , months.”

This week the committee jwill call evidence from the directors of Leopold Minerals NL in an effort to decipher the puzzle surrounding a : missing core sample which was said to show nickel assays of more than 5 per cent.