The World Bank has released its Benchmarking Public Procurement 2016 report which provides comparable data on regulatory environments that affect the ability of private companies to do business with governments in 77 countries Partner Leighton OBrien who contributed to the reports analysis of ...

The acting Federal Treasurer has made a determination under Australias national access regime to not declare access to the Newcastle shipping channel The decision is a reminder of the limits of the national access regime in challenging the pricing of infrastructure owners Partner John Hedge and ...

Water Services Association of Australia and Infrastructure Partnerships Australia the peak bodies for water utilities and infrastructure respectively have released a joint report that calls for major reform in the provision of urban water services across Australia The report suggests that there is a ...

The Federal Government has proposed new legislation that introduces two new criminal offences for false accounting into the Commonwealth Criminal Code The proposed false accounting offences are designed to help Australia comply with the OECDs Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public ...

The release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement has renewed the debate about the ability of foreign investors to sue governments under investor-State dispute settlement mechanisms which are commonly part of international trade agreements or investment treaties between States ...

In a recent decision of the Victorian Supreme Court a Melbourne municipal council was held liable to compensate a landowner for the costs that were incurred by the landowner in the course of complying with a clean-up notice issued under the Environment Protection Act 1970 Vic despite the pollution ...

In this issue we look at sham contracting arrangements gambling addiction as a possible protected attribute under anti-discrimination law who is liable for costs associated with bullying claims a failed general protections claim when a lawful direction will be deemed reasonable and employers ...

The Board of Taxations report on tax arrangements applying to collective investment vehicles considers that offshore investors are dissuaded from investing in Australian funds because they do not understand unit trusts and that access to a broader range of collective investment vehicles would help ...

Legislation introduced into Parliament will impose a 10 per cent non-final withholding tax on proceeds paid to foreign parties to acquire direct or indirect interests in Australian real property and mining rights from 1 July 2016 Partner Martin Fry and Lawyer David Lewis discuss the proposed law ...

The Senate has passed legislation for the establishment of an emissions reduction fund to purchase carbon abatement ...