If you are lucky enough to work in a company that has its own in-house lawyer you already know that their legal and commercial advice can help you make better business decisions.  You may also know of the concept of legal professional privilege, which protects the disclosure of confidential communications between a lawyer (whether or… Read more

You’ve probably seen that Elon Musk (founder of Tesla) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (the billionaire founder of Atlassian) were bantering over Twitter last week in relation to fixing South Australia’s power problem through Tesla installing a 100MW battery farm. To see such an arrangement negotiated in a public forum, and so quickly, is currently very rare… Read more

In his recent Twitter exchange with Mike Cannon-Brookes and telephone conversations with SA Premier Jay Weatherill and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Elon Musk has very publicly thrown Tesla’s hat into the ring as a supplier of a grid scale battery farm to help SA through its energy security issues.  Tesla sell batteries to other people,… Read more

Some say what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but in the case of court proceedings, ignorance is not bliss. You may not know that a creditor can wind up, or a person can obtain judgment against, a company without the company knowing or responding. Unfortunately this can occur when a company doesn’t ensure that… Read more

The Indigenous Procurement Policy (‘IPP’), which commenced on 1 July 2015, aims to increase Indigenous participation in the economy by stimulating Indigenous business development and entrepreneurship. Under the IPP, Indigenous businesses (any business which is 50 percent or more Indigenous owned) will have the opportunity to participate in contracts awarded by the Federal Government. From… Read more

Businesses who use agents to sell their products or services are now at risk of prosecution for breaching competition law.  A recent High Court decision has confirmed that an agreement on price restrictions between agents and principals will breach Australia’s restrictive trade practices laws. In vertical distribution arrangements, a business engages an agent to sell… Read more

There were a number of highlights in 2016 for the local biotech industry, including the announcement of the $500m Biomedical Translation Fund (‘BTF’) and the hosting of the International BioFest – the largest ever gathering in the Australian life sciences. However, a consistent theme amongst the local biotech industry remains the difficulty in attracting the right… Read more

Council Solutions and five Metropolitan Adelaide councils have had their application for authorisation to jointly procure Adelaide waste management services denied by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Why did the councils need authorisation? Council Solutions, Adelaide City Council, and the Cities of Charles Sturt, Marion, Tea Tree Gully and Port Adelaide Enfield sought… Read more

As we outlined in our post in September 2015 the Government has begun the process of implementing the new $37M food labelling project. But you don’t need to panic just yet! The new country of origin labelling laws came into force on 1 July 2016 however, you have until 1 July 2018 to have compliant… Read more

Earlier this month, the Australian government implemented the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land Amendment (Water) Act aimed at tracking foreign ownership of water rights. Why? The amendments form part of the government’s broader focus on understanding what property rights are owned by foreign interests. As such, a register has been established to track all… Read more