A Bill for an Act to Amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act to Require Beneficial Ownership Disclosure for All Federal Contractors, and for Related Matters

CommitteeAnti-Corruption Finance & Banking Trade & Industry Judiciary & Legal Reform

Progress through legislature50%

Overview

Requires every company bidding on or holding a federal contract to disclose its ultimate beneficial owners to the Corporate Affairs Commission, with the register made public.

Chamber: House of Representatives
Current stage: Committee
Introduced: 4 Feb 2026
Last action: 27 Feb 2026

Plain English

A non-partisan summary generated by AI and reviewed by editors for sensitive bills.

AI-generated · human-reviewed

A new law may require companies that want to work with the federal government to tell us who really owns them.

In plain English

This bill aims to change the Companies and Allied Matters Act. It wants the Corporate Affairs Commission to keep a public list of the real owners of companies that bid for or have federal contracts. These owners are people who have at least 5% of the company's shares or control it in other ways. The list will be available for anyone to search by company name, contract number, or owner's name. If a company doesn't disclose this information or lies about it, they won't be able to work with the federal government for five years, and the company's directors might face personal penalties.

How it affects you

As a business owner, you may need to disclose your company's real owners if you want to work with the federal government.
As a citizen, you will have access to information about who really owns companies that work with the government.
As a worker, you might see changes in how companies operate and report their ownership structures.

Arguments for

Supporters argue that this law will help reduce corruption by making it harder for companies to hide their true owners and engage in illegal activities.
It may also increase transparency and accountability in government contracting.

Arguments against

Some argue that this law could be an unnecessary burden on small businesses or companies that don't have complex ownership structures.

Jargon buster

Beneficial owner: A person who ultimately owns or controls a company, even if they don't directly hold the shares.
Equity: A share of ownership in a company.

Sources used to generate this explainer

House of Representatives Bill HB.0234

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Timeline

Introduced4 Feb 2026
First reading4 Feb 2026
Second reading19 Feb 2026
Committee27 Feb 2026current
Joint committee on Anti-Corruption and Commerce; public hearing scheduled for 2026-05-15.