The Government has released a consultation paper on the regulation of retirement income streams It says that the Government wants to encourage the development of more retirement products But this is old news and the paper offers few concrete policy proposals other than in the area of deferred ...

A policy background paper on media control and ownership released by the federal Department of Communications aims to restart the discussion on media law reform The paper does not draw conclusions or make recommendations but adopts a deregulatory tone Partner Ian McGill Senior Associate Matt Vitins ...

The Federal Government has introduced into Parliament legislation for the establishment of its proposed Emissions Reduction Fund which will provide businesses with opportunities to enter into contracts under which the Government pays them for undertaking carbon abatement Partner Grant Anderson and ...

The Ministerial Advisory Committee appointed to review the Victorian State Planning Policy Framework has released a draft version of a new Planning Policy Framework that reorganises the policy framework into themes and updates the policy content to include new policies to support Plan Melbourne and ...

The Federal Government has introduced legislation which, if passed, will terminate the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Program and remove the mandatory requirement for large energy using businesses to assess and report on opportunities to improve energy efficiency. ...

Following consultation and feedback a final version of the Metropolitan Planning Strategy known as Plan Melbourne has been launched While the focus of Plan Melbourne continues to be on employment cluster locations and urban renewal opportunities there is also a renewed focus in the final document on ...

The Victorian Government has recently published guidelines that frame how it will assess unsolicited proposals for infrastructure projects pitched to it by the private sector At a time in the economic cycle where investment in infrastructure is becoming more critical to Australias economic story ...

A recent advisory opinion from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal outlines certain limits on the maintenance repair and compliance costs that a landlord can recover from tenants under Victorian leases particularly retail premises leases Partner John Beckinsale Special Counsel Christine ...

From 1 July 2015 sellers and landlords will be able to enter into sales and leases which are the result of unsolicited offers or which involve only wholly-owned subsidiaries without the need to first provide a building energy efficiency certificate following amendments to federal legislation Partner ...

From 1 October 2016 a stamp duty surcharge of an additional 3 per cent will apply when a foreign person acquires residential land in Queensland Affected taxpayers should therefore urgently consider whether contracts relating to potentially affected transactions can be exchanged in the next few days ...