Queenslands petroleum legislation was recently amended to provide greater flexibility to onshore petroleum tenure holders for a variety of matters including extensions to work programs and terms of authorities to prospect relinquishment conditions and work programs and greater flexibility in both ...

The Papua New Guinea Constitution will be amended to reflect the states ownership of hydrocarbons and minerals under proposals to be put before the PNG Parliament Partner Vaughan Mills and Senior Associate Sarah Kuman report on the implications of these amendments ...

The NSW Court of Appeal has upheld the Land and Environment Courts refusal of the proposed Warkworth mine expansion This case highlights the complexity and onerous nature of the environmental assessment regime for major projects in NSW which empowers the courts to overturn a project approval despite ...

The Federal Government has released its White Paper on the design of the Emissions Reduction Fund Partner Grant Anderson reports ...

An exposure draft of proposed legislative amendments designed to reduce the compliance burden for businesses has been released by the Federal Government The amendments include long-awaited changes to the dividend payment rules the abolition of the 100 member rule and updates to remuneration ...

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. ...

Queenslands Department for Housing and Public Works has released details of fundamental amendments to the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act proposed to come into effect this year Partner Dan Young and Overseas Practitioner Andrew Middleton report on the key reforms proposed and their ...

The Ministerial Advisory Committee appointed to review the Victorian State Planning Policy Framework has released a draft version of a new Planning Policy Framework that reorganises the policy framework into themes and updates the policy content to include new policies to support Plan Melbourne and ...

The Papua New Guinean Government has continued to take significant steps in progressing its anti-corruption agenda in the first quarter of 2014 Partner Allan Mana Senior Associates Sarah Kuman and Michael Gomm and Lawyer Anthony Graham report on recent developments in Papua New Guinea and their ...

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 ...