Minter Ellison Rudd Watts has recently updated and reissued its Corporate Governance White Paper, authored by senior partners Cathy Quinn, Lloyd Kavanagh and Peter Rowe. The Paper sets out practical best practice principles based on the authors' many years of experience working with major companies and regulatory agencies, as well as interviews with leading New Zealand company directors. It also draws on recent case law and on international reports such as the OECD Corporate Lessons from the Financial Crisis and the ASX Corporate Governance Report, as well as the Cadbury Report, Higgs Report and New Zealand Securities Commission Statement on Corporate Governance.

 

The principles fall into two categories - essentially "behavioural" and "structural". The behavioural principles make recommendations in relation to the way directors and senior management should work with each other, while the structural principles make recommendations about the rules, systems and processes which companies should have in place, going well beyond the minimum required for compliance with the Companies Act, to include those to achieve a successful and effective organisation.

 

A copy of the full report is available here. Further copies can be obtained by emailing Kristal West: kristal.west@minterellison.co.nz.