Since its introduction in 2017, the safe harbour regime has provided directors with protection from insolvent trading liability when pursuing a genuine turnaround. But how does it work in practice? This session will explore the safe harbour framework through the lived experiences of a company director who has navigated it. Hear first-hand how safe harbour shaped decision-making, the challenges they faced, and the practical lessons for boards, advisers and other stakeholders.

Session 21: Safe Harbour – Here to Stay

Hear from 3 of our experts on the Safe Harbour Review: Genevieve Sexton, Partner, Arnold Bloch Leibler Joe Hayes, Founder and Director, Wexted Advisors Cameron Belyea, Partner, Clayton Utz With some tweaks accepted by Government, the authors of the Review identified successes in safe harbour adoption by large and some medium companies and moderate success amongst small enterprises. The authors took soundings from AICD, TMAA, ARITA and various industry participants, building quite a nice body of evidence to speak to the recommendations. Government has adopted or noted each of these recommendations, which is fine for so far as it means safe harbour in distressed situations is here to stay. But, what does this mean in terms of the cultural shift from a rights and duties based system (good faith, care + diligence, no-conflicts and preference recovery exceptions) to one based on broader business judgment considerations? Do we need a ‘root and branch review’ of the entire system (and what does this even mean) or is the flexibility of our system, with some added frameworks working just fine? Is the better question how we upskill directors in terms of best practices and education as to changing stakeholders in distressed environments?