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ABC Radio
A long-running unfair dismissal case involving Queensland university professor Peter Ridd has sparked intense debate around questions of academic freedom. Also in the program: the High Court has quashed a legal challenge by mining magnate-turned-politician Clive Palmer against laws designed to ban his company from suing the West Australian
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ABC Radio
Should judges have social contact with lawyers who appear before them in court? The Australian Law Reform Commission is conducting an inquiry into judicial impartiality. Also, is there an obligation on prosecutors to provide defence lawyers with all the raw data downloaded from a confiscated mobile phone?
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ABC Radio
The New South Wales Supreme Court has ruled against a retirement village developer claiming ‘squatters’ rights’, or adverse possession, over a Sydney property. And two court decisions highlight important issues in UK health law: the legality of severe disability as a reason for late-term abortions and access to puberty-suppressing
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ABC Radio
Britain seeks to overhaul immigration laws as asylum seekers and migrants continue to arrive across the English Channel from France. How to investigate human rights violations when on-the-ground access becomes impossible? And, the dangers facing human rights investigators in Afghanistan. Guests: Madeline Gleeson, Senior Research Fellow, Andrew & Renata
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Over the last few days three decisions relating to GST have been handed down. One by the Full Federal Court on the GST treatment of gambling supplies (allowing the Commissioner’s appeal) and two by the Tribunal, one on development leases and whether excess GST has been “passed on” (partially in
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Matthew Townsend
The benefits of an early offer of compromise in restrictive covenant proceedings were again shown in Manderson v Smith Anor (Costs) S ECI 2020 03378 when Efthim AsJ upheld an offer to walk away as being a genuine compromise in … Continue reading →
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ABC Radio
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that landlords can evict tenants for non-payment of rent during the big Victorian lockdown of 2020. It’s a ruling that could affect thousands of vulnerable renters. And, should doctors, lawyers and other professionals be able to sue someone who posts a
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ABC Radio
As the COVID19 pandemic grips NSW, how do we balance the rights of an individual with those of the broader community? And the Victorian Ombudsman has released a report detailing human rights breaches, many dealing with ensuring compliance with COVID 19 public orders.
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Matthew Townsend
In 2011, in Zwierlein v Baw Baw SC [2011] VCAT 74, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal refused an application for a three lot subdivision on land in Warragul after finding it was “unable to say that a beneficiary of … Continue reading →
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ABC Radio
This week, the WA parliament is debating new child protection legislation. Meanwhile a program called Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making is being piloted. Will new laws and programs reduce the vast over representation of Indigenous children in out-of-home care, currently seventeen times more likely than non-Indigenous children?
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ABC Radio
In the USA there is a growing number of legal disputes involving employees, consumers and university students who are challenging mandatory vaccination requirements. And new research suggests that virtual reality headsets could help jurors reach fairer verdicts in complex criminal trials.
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ABC Radio
If you earn a million dollars from selling drugs and are convicted under proceeds of crime legislation, you don’t get to keep it. But what if that conviction is quashed years later? Some of the most notorious figures in the gangland era are heading back to courts to appeal their
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Matthew Townsend
In Rose Burwood Pty Ltd v Whitehorse CC [2021] VCAT 755, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal adopted a potentially inexpensive means of construing a building materials covenant. The parties appear to have made written submissions to the Tribunal and … Continue reading →
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ABC Radio
Climate change is increasingly being raised in courtrooms around the world. The latest was brought by eight Australian school students and a nun who argued that the government owed a duty of care to protect children from the harmful effects of climate change. As journalist Greg Muller reports, climate
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ABC Radio
Could we soon see the creation of a brand new country immediately to Australia’s north? PNG’s Prime Minister and the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government are negotiating Bougainville’s future. Also, what are the most important factors that judges weigh up when sentencing sex offenders? And are judges out
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Matthew Townsend
It is important to remember that the Supreme Court will not enforce each and every breach of a restrictive covenant. A plaintiff discovered this, to his detriment, in Manderson v Smith S ECI 2020 03378. This case concerned a resident … Continue reading →
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ABC Radio
The Uluru Statement from the Heart called for a constitutionally enshrined indigenous voice to parliament. In response, the federal government created a co-design process, which produced an interim report outlining what form this voice might take. A new report has found that 90% of the 2500 submissions received following
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ABC Radio
Can revealing Australia’s security operations ever be in the public interest? A former spy, Witness K received a three-month suspended sentence for revealing the Australian government spied on the Timor Leste government during negotiations over oil and gas resources in the Timor Strait. And, since the 1970s, over 300,000
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ABC Radio
Some countries and states have introduced a Vaccine Passport, to allow more domestic and international movement and businesses to return. What are the technical and legal obstacles to a COVID-19 vaccine passport here in Australia? And in this Pride Month, while the LGBTQI community has a lot to celebrate
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ABC Radio
Former Attorney General Christian Porter has discontinued his defamation litigation against the ABC. And power company AGL is taking Greenpeace to court arguing breach of trademark and copyright. AGL says the activist group should not have used its trademark in a series of parody advertisements that highlights its CO2
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ABC Radio
We speak to the Chair and one of other the four commissioners who will preside over Victoria’s ground breaking Yoo-rrook or Justice Commission. And new research has found that local court magistrates are the state-based judicial officers who suffer most from work-related stress.
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ABC Radio
Many victim survivors of sexual assault say they found giving evidence at trial a harrowing and re-traumatising experience. The Victorian Law Reform Commission is currently conducting an inquiry into ways to improve the responses of the justice system to sexual offences.
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ABC Radio
The Federal Court dismissed a challenge to the Morrison government’s ban on Australian citizens returning from India. Justice Thawley ruled that the government was acting within its powers under the Biosecurity Act 2015. And should professional sports people be able to continue playing when facing serious criminal charges?
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ABC Radio
The Federal Court dismissed a challenge to the Morrison government’s ban on Australian citizens returning from India. Justice Thawley ruled that the government was acting within its powers under the Biosecurity Act 2015. And should professional sports people be able to continue playing when facing serious criminal charges?
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ABC Radio
The Federal Court dismissed a challenge to the Morrison government’s ban on Australian citizens returning from India. Justice Thawley ruled that the government was acting within its powers under the Biosecurity Act 2015. And should professional sports people be able to continue playing when facing serious criminal charges?
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ABC Radio
Mohinda Singh, the truck driver responsible for the deaths of four Victorian police officers has been sentenced to a non parole period of 18 years. Richard Pusey, who callously filmed the tragedy has also been sentenced to 10 months jail after pleading guilty to a number of offences including
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ABC Radio
Australia’s whistle-blower laws will be in the spotlight when a long-running, high-profile prosecution involving former ATO officer Richard Boyle comes back before the courts. Also, if a vaccine causes an injury, many countries have a vaccine injury compensation scheme. Do we need one in Australia?
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Matthew Townsend
The attached paper is an updated presentation to the University of Melbourne’s undergraduate Property Law class in April 2021. It provides a relatively comprehensive overview of the law in relation to restrictive covenants in Victoria. Comments are welcome townsend@vicbar.com.au
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ABC Radio
NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan has found that the murders of teenagers Jack and Jennifer Edwards by their father were preventable. The Coroner identified a series of serious systemic failures which contributed to the crimes. Also, Victorian Coroner Paresa Spanos has recommended the adoption of pill testing after investigating
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Matthew Townsend
For a restrictive covenant to be legally valid, the following elements are required: (a) the covenant must be negative;(b) the burden of the covenant must be intended to run with the land; and(c) the covenant must be given for the … Continue reading →
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ABC Radio
The Victorian government is set to consider fully decriminalising sex work this year. Guest producer Carly Godden traces how, over the eras, the law in Victoria has regulated the commercial sex and adult industries. *Note there are sexual references in this program
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Matthew Townsend
The Supreme Court is typically unwilling to exercise its power to discharge a restrictive covenant entirely, preferring instead to modify a covenant to allow an applicant’s stated intentions. The objective for applicants should therefore be to modify the restrictive covenant … Continue reading →
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ABC Radio
On advice from the Solicitor-General, the PM shifts Christian Porter to Minister for Industry, Science and Technology. And following the NSW Court of Appeal ruling that Kathleen Folbigg stay behind bars, the Australian Academy of Science issues a strong statement saying ‘there are medical and scientific explanations for the
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ABC Radio
For the first time a journalist is allowed to record in the Thomas Embling Hospital, Melbourne’s Forensic healthcare facility. Meet therapists, the psychiatrist in charge and some of the patients who have committed a serious crime but are deemed not responsible for their actions due to mental illness.
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ABC Radio
Attorney-General Christian Porter has just lodged a defamation action against the ABC. And recently, the full Federal Court upheld a $120,000 damages payout to Senator Sarah Hanson Young by former Senator David Leyonhjelm. Also, new research on who is most likely to commit a serious crime. A former prisoner
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ABC Radio
Attorney-General Christian Porter has just lodged a defamation action against the ABC. And recently, the full Federal Court upheld a $120,000 damages payout to Senator Sarah Hanson Young by former Senator David Leyonhjelm. Also, new research on who is most likely to commit a serious crime. A former prisoner
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In Federal Commissioner of Taxation v Travelex Limited [2021] HCA 8 the High Court has unanimously allowed the appeal brought by the Commissioner against the decision of the Full Federal Court in Commissioner of Taxation v Travelex Limited [2020] FCAFC 10. This is the second case to reach the High Court,
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ABC Radio
Ron Sackville QC, AO, the chair of The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has been hearing harrowing accounts of the experiences of people with cognitive disability in the criminal justice system. In a legal first, the Kaurareg people of Muralug island obtained
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ABC Radio
The High Court of Australia has upheld the Continuing Detention Order for convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika. Even though his fifteen year sentence is over, he is deemed to pose an ongoing threat and he remains in detention. Also, the High Court has agreed to hear the case of