AMP’s chief executive Francesco De Ferrari has gone on the offensive against class actions in Australia, saying litigation funders were driving up the cost of doing business, resulting in job losses and increasing costs of financial advice.
Gloria Jeans’ owner Retail Food Group has avoided enforcement action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after an investigation sparked by last year’s damning parliamentary report into the franchise sector.
Citing the “crippling financial impact” of the coronavirus pandemic, Australian swimwear company Seafolly has become the latest fashion retailer to enter voluntary administration.
Australia’s peak legal body has called for amendments to sex discrimination laws to better protect women against workplace harassment by judges and barristers, and has urged the Morrison government to establish an independent commission to deal with complaints against the judiciary.
Already facing action by the corporate regulator for alleged misleading and deceptive conduct and a potential class action, investment firm Mayfair 101 must now defend a lawsuit by former Liberal senator Julian McGauran, who is demanding the return of his $1 million investment.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has failed in a high-profile challenge to a ruling for Westpac in its responsible lending case against the bank, with an appeals court majority saying the regulator read too much into the national credit laws.
Virgin’s administrators have reached a deal with Bain Capital to buy the airline and its subsidiaries, saying Friday US investment firm had made a “strong and compelling” bid to keep Australia’s second airline operating and secure the jobs of thousands of workers.
The competition regulator wants the High Court to hear its challenge to Pacific National’s $205 million acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland, saying the deal would entrench the rail freight carrier’s near monopoly on the east coast of Australia.
The former CEO of Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Beem It was dismissed for blowing the whistle on multiple conflicts of interest by directors of the digital payment company, just months after she was warned by one director that the “CBA wagons” were circling her, a lawsuit alleges.
The High Court is reaching out to more than 100 former associates who worked during the tenure of former Justice Dyson Heydon, the high-powered judge facing legal action after being found to have sexually harassed several female associates.