On 7 December 2017 the Senate referred the provisions of the Bankruptcy Amendment (Debt Agreement Reform) Bill 2017 to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 21 March 2018.

The bill was to be introduced into the House of Representatives in late 2017, but this did not occur. To enable stakeholders to review and comment on the proposed legislation, the committee released an exposure draft of the 2018 bill, together with an exposure draft of the explanatory memorandum.

The bill was subsequently introduced on 14 February 2018. The committee understands that no substantive changes were made between these exposure drafts, and the bill and its accompanying explanatory memorandum.

Submissions for this inquiry should be addressed to this committee in the usual way. The deadline for submissions to the inquiry is 16 February 2018.