In a decision that has potential implications for a raft of Federal Government programs the High Court held that legislation passed to authorise hundreds of government funding arrangements is invalid insofar as it relates to the national schools chaplaincy program The decision once again confirms ...

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 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 Federal Government has implemented a variety of policy and legislative reforms to its environmental approvals regime Partner Chris Schulz Senior Associate Emily Gerrard and Associate Katherine Kirby report on two legislative amendments that facilitate recent reforms the introduction of a user ...

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 ...

The Northern Territory Government has decided not to impose a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for its onshore oil and gas industry giving the Territorys onshore oil and gas operators and investors investment certainty at a time that export and domestic opportunities are arising Partner Ben ...

Following last weeks release of the New South Wales and South Australian budgets it is clear that most state and territory budgets handed down since the Federal Budget have shown an alignment with the Federal Governments national agreement on infrastructure investment and asset recycling Partner ...

The Federal Government announced late last week that the first agreement under its 5 billion Asset Recycling Initiative has been signed with the ACT Government demonstrating the Federal Governments commitment to the Initiative despite the underlying legislation remaining stalled by the Senate ...