Modernising Business Registers Business Advisory Group key messages 3 February 2021

Welcome and introductions

Mary Arrowsmith opened the meeting as Chair.

Program update

On 10 December 2020, the senate passed legislative amendments to Division 355 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953. This allows Modernising Business Register (MBR) to progress design and build on the assumption protected tax information can be shared with the Registrar by the ATO to perform registry functions, and the tax file number to be used to access ATO shared services.

Begun receiving company register data from Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) to assist with design and build.

Senator the Hon Jane Hume, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy is now responsible for the MBR Program.

A new brand for the future registry service has been approved by Minister Morton.

Members will be asked to participate in a working group to help draft messaging for the new brand.

Unified updates

Members discussed how the simplified user experience provided by MBR updating their details will support the goal of ‘tell us once.’

Members discussed issues around permissions and notifications noting the complexity of some director's relationships. Specifically:

• Current systems only enable one registered agent for an entity. This is not optimal functionally, as many entities have multiple providers.
• There may be good reasons to be using different addresses and information for different relationships.

Members provided feedback on current difficulties in fulfilling their responsibilities to Government in relation to entity data reporting.

Director ID proposed Application Programming Interface (API) timeline

Director ID team have been consulting with the digital identity program on solutions for Director ID APIs.

The Program is establishing an inventory of required APIs and will return to consult with the MBR Business Advisory Group once complete

Director ID update

Members discussed the ability of the business community to meet the current director ID timelines through their natural systems.

The combination of a variety of government initiatives such as single touch payroll phase 2, e-invoicing and other modernising digital initiatives are impacting digital service providers capacity to respond to new government requests to include regulatory actions within their software.

Concern was shown about the success of the director ID rollout, with specific reference to the sequence of director ID go-live dates and the availability of APIs to enable user of Digital Signal Processors (DSP) software.

The director ID private beta will:

• test the usability and stability of the integrated solution to deliver director ID
• validate the experience of the director ID to apply and receive a director ID
• improve the service by identifying and addressing technical, functional and usability irritants
• establish readiness to progress to public and go live phases.

Other business

No other business.