The federal government has backed suggestions for changes to the Food and Grocery Code that would slap major grocery stores with fines of up to $10 million for violating the code, amid concerns over rising food prices.
Offering a mixed review of the NSW budget on Tuesday, the Law Society of NSW welcomed the funding boost to legal aid and other key agencies but said the state should do more to modernize the courts.
A Senate report into the government’s use of consultants, launched in the wake of PwC’s leak of confidential Treasury information, has recommended an inquiry into whether partnerships should be subject to the same regulations as corporations and again called on PwC to release the names of all those involved in the leak of confidential government information.
A report tabled in Parliament has called for the introduction of a federal human rights law to replace the “inadequate” and “confusing” patchwork of state and federal laws, which the Law Council of Australia said was “long overdue”.
A Larrakia Danggalaba man has sought access to documents for a possible lawsuit over the federal government’s decision to greenlight the destruction of an Aboriginal cultural site to develop Defence housing.
Moves to restore public confidence in the government reviews process are underway after the federal Parliament passed new legislation replacing the “damaged” Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which has been criticised for failing to stop the Robodebt scheme, with a new Administrative Review Tribunal.
A homophobic tweet by former NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham unleashed an “utterly hateful torrent of abuse and vitriol”, including death threats against Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, which left him fearing for his safety, a court has heard.
Victorian Liberal Party leader John Pesutto has settled two defamation lawsuits by organisers of the ‘Let Women Speak Rally’ and apologised for conflating them with neo-Nazis who crashed the event, saying his comments “could have more clearly differentiated between the groups”.
Mehreen Faruqi wants to reopen a racial discrimination trial to rebut evidence by One Nation senator Pauline Hanson that she didn’t know the deputy Greens leader was Muslim when she wrote in a tweet that the senator should “piss off back to Pakistan”.
Bruce Lehrmann had no behind-the-scenes financial backer for his failed and costly defamation case against Network Ten but had entered a no win, no fee arrangement with his solicitors, a court has heard.