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 ...

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 ...

The High Court recently overturned a NSW Court of Appeal decision that stated a building contractor owed a duty of care for pure economic loss for defective work to a successor in title to the developer of commercial premises. ...

The Australian Privacy Commissioner has released a report into the Department of Immigration and Border Protection having breached the privacy of asylum seekers in February 2014 Partner Michael Pattison and Associate Priyanka Nair report on the Commissioners findings and the lessons for all ...

In the Final Report, the Commissioner has found that, for the most part, whilst the legislative tools necessary to protect borrowers are already available, there have been significant shortcomings in ...

Today the Full Federal Court clarified the law of penalties as it applies to fees The key development is that in considering whether the amount of a fee is extravagant and exorbitant compared to the potential costs incurred in dealing with a failure to perform an obligation the court held that ...