Section 38 — Corporations Act 2001: Modification by regulations

(1) The regulations may modify the operation of this Act (including the provisions applied by clause 36) in relation to: (a) a company registered under clause 3; or (b) a company that is permitted to use the expression building society, credit union or credit society under section 66 of the Banking Act 1959; or (c) a company that is a friendly society for the purposes of the Life Insurance Act 1995; or (d) a specified class of any of those companies. (2) Regulations made for the purposes of this clause may only modify this Act in relation to the following matters: (a) issuing, cancelling or redeeming membership shares or redeemable preference shares; (b) inspection of the register of members required by section 169; (c) giving notice of a meeting of a company’s members; (d) members’ rights to request the directors to hold a general meeting or to move a resolution at a general meeting; (e) issuing share certificates for membership shares or redeemable preference shares, or numbering those shares; (f) the publication of the names and addresses of members in the annual return; (g) the report to members required by section 314; (h) disposing of securities in a company if the whereabouts of the holder of the securities is unknown as described in section 1343; (i) the treatment of members who hold shares jointly or who have jointly given a guarantee; (j) selective buy-backs. (2A) Without limiting paragraph (2)(c), regulations made under this clause may provide for ASIC to make, by legislative instrument, a determination relating to manners in which notice mentioned in that paragraph may be published. (3) Regulations made for the purposes of this clause may not: (a) create an offence with a penalty greater than 10 penalty units; or (b) increase the penalty for an existing offence; or (c) substitute for an existing offence an offence with a penalty greater than the penalty for the existing offence; or (d) modify an obligation, contravention of which will result in committing an offence, so as to make it more difficult to comply with.