The parties in a class action against the Federal Government over the controversial Robodebt scheme have reached an in principle settlement as the first day of a highly anticipated hearing was scheduled to kick off.
The chief of the Australian Defence Force has lost a bid to keep information obtained by a war crimes inquiry from three news publishers defending against a defamation suit by war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith.
A judge has expressed doubts that every group member in the Robodebt class action is vulnerable, as the parties gear up for two-week trial in the high-profile case over the unlawful debt recovery method that begins Monday.
The Federal Government has critised as “hopelessly defective” a lawsuit alleging it failed to disclose the impacts of climate change to investors in sovereign bonds, and the judge overseeing the matter has also raised concerns about the case.
Mining giant Glencore has mostly defeated an appeal by the Australian Taxation Office in their tax fight, and will only have to pay $2 million of a $92 million bill relating to the sale of copper from a mine in Cobar, NSW.
Lawyers from three newspapers being sued by war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith for defamation are seeking sensitive documents alleged to show the former soldier asked his wife to lie about an affair.
Australia’s largest library has entered into a “stringent” enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman after underpaying more than 100 employees to the tune of $250,000 in wages and super.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been fined $150,000 after a Federal Court judge found the bank had breached the law by increasing a problem gambler’s credit card limit but that the conduct was “not systematic, deliberate or covert”.
A judge has given the greenlight to AUSTRAC’s $1.3 billion penalty against Westpac over the bank’s 23 million breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism laws, the biggest regulatory fine ever paid by an Australian company.
A judge has refused an application by the Federal Government to appeal the expansion of the Robodebt class action pleadings despite finding the case was “troubling”, “weak” and in certain aspects “[made] no sense whatsoever”.