In the absence of the Responsible Lending Obligations, lending by Australian banks will be regulated by APRA. This means the new Credit Risk Management Prudential Standard (APS220) will be the central legislative guidance in designing consumer assessment and lending protocols. ...

After several months of delay due to COVID-19, the Bill implements a large number of the Hayne Royal Commission recommendations, and in particular picks up several of the recommendations that are aimed at reforming the insurance sector. ...

Western Australia has joined the harmonised work health and safety (WHS) regime, in line with New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Victoria will continue to operate under a separate regime. The Work Health and Safety Act 2019 (WA) (the Act) passed through the Legislative Assembly on 3 November 2020. ...

In a recent decision of the Fair Work Commission (the FWC), an employer has been chastised for unreasonably directing an employee to work only 60% of their pre-COVID hours. ...

If you propose to significantly reduce an employee's hours of work, you should carefully take this decision into account. If the same circumstances exist, the employee may be entitled to a redundancy payment, even though the employee remains employed by the same employer. ...

The Inquiry into the On-Demand Workforce (the Inquiry) released its report we'll link from here to into the ‘on-demand’ workforce in the Victorian labour market (the Report) on 15 July 2020. The Report makes a number of recommendations to update the current system. ...

In a landmark case, the ACCC alleges that Google failed to obtain explicit and informed consent from its consumers about the use of their data and acted contrary to representations made in its privacy policy. ...

We take a look at the opportunity to contribute to Australia's future domestic oil storage infrastructure pursuant to the Agreement on an International Energy Program, and the key matters to address in an RFI submission. ...

In this case, the New South Wales Court of Appeal considered whether a 'waiver of rights' clause was enforceable by all parties to the deed, and whether the appellant, Wollongong Coal Ltd, was entitled to equitable set off. ...

There is a general rule that damages for breach of contract are assessed at the date of breach.1 This rule does not apply, however, if assessing damages at a different date would more appropriately compensate the plaintiff. ...