Pub­li­ca­tions

Nov 13, 2023

‘Tis the Sea­son to Avoid Fol­ly: Work­place Christ­mas Par­ties (2023 Edition)

It’s that time of year. The ​‘Sil­ly Sea­son’. For many organ­i­sa­tions, the offi­cial employ­er Christ­mas par­ty is imminent. The start­ing point for office Christ­mas par­ties is that they are an exten­sion of the work­place — employ­ers need to care­ful­ly bal­ance hold­ing and facil­i­tat­ing a fun event with main­tain­ing a safe, respect­ful envi­ron­ment for employees. …

Sep 20, 2023

Tree dis­putes among neigh­bours – know your rights

There is a lit­tle-known piece of leg­is­la­tion in NSW called the Trees (Dis­putes Between Neigh­bours) Act 2006, and it has been the sub­ject of sev­er­al deci­sions recent­ly in the NSW Land and Envi­ron­ment Court.  In an ide­al world, a prop­er­ty own­er with con­cerns about a neigh­bour­ing tree, hedge, or stands of plants, would resolve…

Sep 6, 2023

Clos­ing Loop­holes or Rad­i­cal Change? The Fair Work Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Clos­ing Loop­holes) Bill 2023

Ear­li­er this week, the Albanese Gov­ern­ment intro­duced the ​‘Fair Work Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Clos­ing Loop­holes) Bill 2023’ (Bill), which con­tains a num­ber of sig­nif­i­cant reforms to the work­place rela­tions land­scape. If ful­ly imple­ment­ed in its cur­rent form, the Bill will lead to a num­ber of impli­ca­tions in the way busi­ness­es and work­ers engage…

Aug 28, 2023

Statu­to­ry Review of Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion Act 2016 (NSW)

Damn­ing Find­ings from Review of Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion Act The find­ings from the 5‑year statu­to­ry review of the Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion Act 2016 (NSW) (BC Act) are in, and it does­n’t make for hap­py reading.  Pur­suant to sec­tion 14.11(1) of the BC Act, the Min­is­ter is to review this Act to deter­mine whether the…

Jul 17, 2023

Non-Dis­par­age­ment Claus­es v Free Speech

The recent high-pro­file deci­sion of the Supreme Court of NSW in Net­work Ten Pty Lim­it­ed v van Onse­len [2023] NSWSC 829 pro­vides a rare insight into the scope and prac­ti­cal effect of non-dis­par­age­ment claus­es in deeds of release for employ­ment mat­ters. These claus­es are almost always includ­ed in such deeds, usu­al­ly in…

Jul 11, 2023

Alert | Con­struc­tion indus­try update: When is reme­di­al build­ing work exempt devel­op­ment? 11 July 2023

The Depart­ment of Plan­ning and Envi­ron­ment has pub­lished a ​‘Reme­di­al Build­ing Work – State Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning Pol­i­cy (Exempt and Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment Codes) 2008’ Fact Sheet (Fact Sheet) to pro­vide guid­ance as to when reme­di­al build­ing work is con­sid­ered exempt devel­op­ment under the Exempt and Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment (Codes SEPP): https://​www​.plan​ning​.nsw​.gov​.au/​s​i​t​e​s​/​d​e​f​a​u​l​t​/​f​i​l​e​s​/2023 –…

Jul 3, 2023

Is your Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment Cer­tifi­cate valid?

In the recent deci­sion of Wol­londil­ly Shire Coun­cil v Kennedy [2023] NSWLEC 53 the Land and Envi­ron­ment Court has held that the fail­ure by a cer­ti­fi­er or con­sent author­i­ty to include the ​‘pur­pose’ of devel­op­ment in a Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment Cer­tifi­cate could ren­der that cer­tifi­cate invalid.  Impli­ca­tions A com­ply­ing devel­op­ment cer­tifi­cate can only be issued…

Jun 30, 2023

Impor­tant Work­place Rela­tions Changes Effec­tive 1 July 2023

Employ­ers and employ­ees alike need to be aware of impor­tant changes in the work­place rela­tions space, effec­tive 1 July 2023. From that date: the high income thresh­old for unfair dis­missal cas­es will increase to $167,500 per annum (from the present $162,000 per annum) and the com­pen­sa­tion lim­it will be $83,750 (equiv­a­lent to…

May 15, 2023

Employ­ees & the Employ­er Posi­tion on the Voice in Parliament

Many sig­nif­i­cant organ­i­sa­tions, includ­ing large employ­ers, have adopt­ed a cor­po­rate posi­tion on the Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Voice Ref­er­en­dum (Voice). It seems the vast major­i­ty of organ­i­sa­tions that have declared a posi­tion are in favour of the Voice, most recent­ly the Aus­tralian Olympic Com­mit­tee (AOC) Exec­u­tive and AOC Ath­letes’ Com­mis­sion, and…

May 5, 2023

Reme­di­a­tion Orders – What are they? And what hap­pens if you get one?

Many land­hold­ers in NSW are unaware of their oblig­a­tions in respect of land clear­ing. This is under­stand­able giv­en the num­ber of changes to land clear­ing rules over the last decade and the com­plex­i­ty of those rules.  Instead of pros­e­cut­ing peo­ple for land clear­ing offences, the Depart­ment of Plan­ning, Indus­try and Envi­ron­ment…