The campaign follows Federal Government support of a recommendation by its Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business to remove the legal obligation for corporations to produce printed annual reports in favour of electronic reports.
Printing Industries CEO Philip Andersen says known supporters of the recommendation are also being lobbied.
“We have spoken to the Australian Shareholders Association, who support the Taskforce report recommendation but have not yet made a formal response, to point out the full implications of this decision if it is legislated as proposed,” he says.
Andersen says arrangements are also underway for meetings with politicians and senior public servants.
These include Prime Minister John Howard and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Chris Pearce, who is responsible for corporate governance.
“I have explained to the Prime Minister that while the Task Force was set up to look at ways of reducing the regulatory burden on business, its annual report recommendation fails to address this point.
“The burden lies not in printing the annual report but in its preparation and this will still need to be done as the reports will still need to be prepared for electronic distribution,“ he adds.
Printing Industries is also lobbying Senator Nick Minchin, Minister for Finance and Administration and Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Minchin has supported industry initiatives in the past.
The Federal Minister for Human Services, Joe Hockey, has been asked to receive an industry delegation including paper company representatives. Support is also being sought from the Australian Council of Super Investors.
Andersen is due to meet with representatives from other sectors of the industry and with executives from PaperlinX with a view to building an annual report coalition.
He says it is important that all companies provide feedback on the value to their business of annual report production, even if they produce only one a year.
This information should be e-mailed to annualreport@printnet.com.au Information is for aggregate purposes only and will be treated confidentially.
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