Australian Government Solicitor

The Queensland Supreme Court has tossed a judicial review application by mining magnate Clive Palmer seeking a declaration that criminal proceedings against him should be thrown out as abuses of process. 

In a blow for the plaintiffs in a long-running class action over the government's live exports ban, a judge has found that no additional cattle would have been exported to Indonesia in 2012 and 2013 if the ban had not been in place. 

The environment minister has argued there is no “screaming urgency” in hearing a traditional custodian’s legal challenge to Woodside’s bid to extend its North West Shelf gas project by 40 years. 

The judge hearing the ACCC’s price-fixing case against Downer EDI's Spotless and Ventia has proposed an initial hearing to determine if the companies are in competition, saying he won't let the case become “totally unwieldy”.

An activist group has lost a challenge to the approval of a 69-turbine wind farm in North Queensland that it says ran afoul of international treaties to protect migratory birds, with a judge finding no grounds to review the decision.

In the ACCC’s price-fixing case, infrastructure services company Ventia has joined with Spotless in arguing the companies were not in competition, and says it was the Department of Defence that arranged for the providers to talk.

A lawyer for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has been grilled by a Federal Court judge for failing to file a defence in Clive Palmer's case against the corporate watchdog.

A judge has refused to allow four people to join a closed class action brought on behalf of certain people who were detained at two infamous immigration detention centres in South Australia.

Ex-CFMEU Victorian branch boss John Setka has still not filed his defence in a case alleging he tried to get the former head of the construction industry watchdog sacked, and the Fair Work Ombudsman says it may seek summary judgment.

Downer EDI subsidiary Spotless has rejected allegations it engaged in price-fixing with Ventia on defence contracts, saying the facilities services companies were not in competition with each other.