Yesterday, Crikey reported that Professor Ian Harper, Chairman of the federal government’s new Fair Pay
Commission, was a non-executive director of
Australian Derivatives Exchange (ADX), a company that flew onto ASIC’s radar
four years ago. ADX,
a futures exchange set up in 2000 with the approval
of the government, went broke owing workers more than $700,000, according to
a report, and it may also have breached corporations law.

Professor Harper responded with this statement:

Professor Ian Harper today confirmed that his position
as a non-executive director of the Australian Derivatives Exchange Limited (ADX)
was expressly drawn to the Government’s attention during initial discussions
regarding his potential appointment as Chairman of the Australian Fair Pay
Commission.

ADX Limited was placed under voluntary administration in
March 2001. This is a matter of public record and was widely reported in the
media at the time.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission
(ASIC) investigated ADX’s operations in 2001. Professor Harper appeared before
the Registrar of the Supreme Court of NSW in August 2004 where the issues were
fully and publicly examined by the liquidator.

“To the best of my knowledge, all entitlements in the
form of unpaid wages, leave entitlements and superannuation have been paid to
all former employees of ADX,” Professor Harper
said.