ASX receives positive ASIC assessment

							                              MEDIA RELEASE
19 July 2005

                  ASX welcomes positive ASIC assessment
The Australian Stock Exchange has welcomed the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission’s finding that ASX is supervising its markets to ensure they are fair, orderly
and transparent.

ASIC’s positive assessment of ASX covered its handling of conflicts between its
commercial interests and the need to ensure that the market operates in a fair orderly
and transparent manner, monitoring the conduct of market participants and enforcing
compliance with its listing and market rules.

The assessment is available at www.asic.gov.au

“This is good news for ASX and for all our stakeholders who have helped maintain our
markets’ reputation for high integrity and we thank them for their efforts. Maintaining
that reputation is paramount to the success of ASX and instils confidence in those who
participate in the markets we operate,” ASX Managing Director and CEO Tony
D’Aloisio said.

ASIC commends ASX for its substantial progress in strengthening its arrangements for
supervising its markets and for monitoring and assessing its own compliance with its
obligations as a market licensee. ASIC particularly commends ASX’s work on corporate
governance with the Corporate Governance Council. Importantly, ASIC notes that
“none of the suggestions for improvements…detracts from the conclusion that ASX’s
arrangements have met and continue to meet their statutory obligations.”

ASX has embraced ASIC’s suggestions and has actioned all of them. The attachment
provides more detail on what ASX is doing.

“Continuous improvement is very much part of our culture and, indeed, the supervision
review we have announced is very much about improving efficiency and effectiveness,
and strengthening our supervisory function to add resources where necessary,” Mr
D’Aloisio said.

For further information

Media:                                           Investors and analysts:
Gervase Greene                                   Dimitri Burshtein
ASX Corporate Relations                          Investor Relations Manager
(BH) +61 2 9227 0464                             (BH) +61 2 9227 0279
(Mobile) 0419 496 703                            (Mobile) 0414 629 751
Continuous improvement


ASX has already responded, or is responding, to all of ASIC’s suggestions for improvements
including:

Continuous Disclosure

ASX has given ASIC significant detailed analysis to explain the apparent lack of consistency
between state offices. While variances can relate to the profile of companies in each State, ASX has
also implemented improvements, including:

    •    a revised Guidance Note on 29 June 2005 about its continuous disclosure policy and
         internal guidance to staff about the application of the policy.

    •    revised record-keeping practices (including contemporaneous recording of continuous
         disclosure activity);

    •    improved monitoring and analysis of its supervision of continuous disclosure to ensure
         greater consistency.

Warrants Market

ASX has acted upon each of the specific suggestions on the warrants market raised by ASIC. ASX
has appointed an independent expert to review supervisory arrangements and the rules framework
in the warrants market. That report is expected by the end of July and ASX will implement the
recommendations made in the report. Although warrants trades accounted for 2% of SEATS
trades and less than 3% of all trading revenue in 2003/04, implementing the improvements is
nonetheless a high priority for ASX.

Structured Products

ASX has restructured the supervisory arrangements for structured products, so that all supervisory
decisions about admissions, waivers, periodic reports and market making obligations are now taken
by the Supervision Division.

Derivatives market supervision

ASX has enhanced its derivatives-monitoring technology to implement all suggestions made by
ASIC. This forms part of the final stage of implementation of ASX’s new upgraded automated
surveillance system, SMARTS. This system has been under implementation since September 2004,
and represents a significant commitment of resources by ASX to its supervisory obligations, at a
cost of around $1.5 million.

Rule amendment process

ASIC has noted the promising trend of ASX adopting appropriate rule changes, rather than the use
of routine waivers. ASX agrees that this trend needs to be measured over time.