Section 204A — Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)

Minimum number of secretaries

Proprietary companies

(1) A proprietary company is not required to have a secretary but, if it does have 1 or more secretaries, at least 1 of them must ordinarily reside in Australia.

Public companies

(2) A public company must have at least 1 secretary. At least 1 of them must ordinarily reside in Australia.

Strict liability offences

(3) An offence based on subsection (1) or (2) is an offence of strict liability.

Note: For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code.

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation at 17 May 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government law please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Verify the current text against the official source before relying on it.

Related sections

s 203D — Removal by members—public companies
s 203E — Director cannot be removed by other directors—public companies
s 203F — Termination of appointment of managing director (replaceable rule—see section 135)
s 204B — Who can be a secretary
s 204C — Consent to act as secretary
s 204D — How a secretary is appointed

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