Recent reforms to the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 Cth introduced new provisions that deem foreign government investors of the same country to be associates of each other These provisions have created practical difficulties for foreign government investors who risk unintentionally ...

The Australian Government has announced wide reaching changes to Australias foreign investment framework that will apply from 1 December 2015 Partner Wendy Rae reports on the potential impacts of the changes which include new fees stricter enforcement and penalties and increased scrutiny around ...

The Australian Governments Critical Infrastructure Centre launched earlier this year is part of the governments plans to manage national security concerns arising from foreign investment in Australian critical infrastructure The Centre has released a discussion paper calling for input into how it ...

ASIC has released a report looking at the way vertically integrated funds management businesses deal with conflicts of interest The report summarises the findings of ASICs recent review of a number of businesses and sets out some good practice recommendations Partner Marc Kemp and Senior Associate ...

The European Securities and Markets Association has published its initial advice and opinion on the functioning of the marketing passport and national private placement regimes since the implementation of AIFMD and the possibility of extending the marketing passport to non-European fund managers ...

Victoria is proposing to limit its off-the-plan duty concession; extend the scope of its sub-sale duty provisions; and introduce a vacant residential property tax ...

The Queensland Government is proposing legislation that will restore a prohibition on landlords requiring tenants to pay land tax under commercial leases entered into after 1 January 1992 and before 30 June 2009 This essentially negates the effect of a Supreme Court decision that land tax from 30 ...

As part of its ongoing efforts to improve the domestic banking sectors accountability the Federal Government recently announced a series of measures to join the ongoing global push seeking to improve measures for individual accountability for misconduct The proposed Banking Executives Accountability ...

Treasury released a paper seeking feedback on a framework for Comprehensive Income Products for Retirement. It will permit trustees to offer members on a 'soft default' basis 'mass-customised, composite retirement income products' and, to encourage trustees ...

ASIC has recently released a report about its work with the big four banks and AMP on adviser misconduct The report is essentially an update on the progress of ASICs Wealth Management Project and mostly contains information we already know The most interesting part deals with the results of ASICs ...