Legislation has been introduced in Victoria to provide for new standard infrastructure levies to fund local infrastructure such as roads community centres kindergartens maternal and child health facilities local parks and sporting facilities ...

In this issue we look at whether conduct by an employee out-of-hours can justify dismissal what adjustments an employer must make to accommodate an employees disability what obtaining alternative employment means for employers who want to apply to reduce their redundancy obligation and obtaining ...

The recently delegated news domain string has the potential to impact brand owners universally particularly now that registrations in the news domain string are open for general availability With no eligibility requirements and low registration costs news has a high risk of infringement at the ...

Australia and japan have enetered into an economic partnership agreement to reducel tariff barriers on the majority of Australian exports to Japan. In contrast to the recently concluded Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement, it does not include an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. ...

The Federal Government has announced that it will press ahead with changes to the future of financial advice provisions, initially by regulation and then by legislation ...

The Governments much anticipated FOFA regulations were registered today and provide significant relief for benefits provided to employees and representatives of product issuers who provide general advice They also expressly allow bonuses to be linked to successful product sales providing the bonus ...

Perhaps the most important unanswered question in Australian class action law is how causation may be established in the context of a shareholder class action In the United States this issue has been addressed by the fraud on the market theory This week the US Supreme Court rejected a challenge to ...

A new regime that streamlines the environmental approvals process for petroleum activities in Commonwealth waters will place a greater responsibility on the titleholder of a tenement rather than the operator Partner Chris Schulz and Senior Associate Eve Lynch provide an overview of the changes ...

Since the 1996 Wallis Inquiry disclosure has been at the heart of the regulatory philosophy for the retail financial services sector in Australia Under the Financial System Inquirys terms of reference the Inquiry will refresh the philosophy principles and objectives underpinning the development of a ...

The Federal Government has taken the first step towards achieving its announced intention of abolishing the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and transferring some of its functions to the Australian Taxation Office and the yet-to-be-established National Centre for Excellence ...