A judge hearing a defamation case over a podcast by The Australian about the murder of Shandee Blackburn has granted a bid by a News Corp unit for a pre-trial hearing to determine whether acquitted suspect John Peros suffered serious harm from the podcast.
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”.
The Morrison-era reforms that introduced a fault element to the continuous disclosure laws should be repealed for civil penalty proceedings launched by ASIC, but retained for class actions by shareholders, a report of an independent review of the changes has recommended.
An appeals court has dismissed an environmental advocacy group’s challenge to the extension of two Mach Energy and Whitehaven Coal mega coal mines in NSW, saying the current environmental laws are “ill-suited” to dealing with the global threat of climate change.
HWL Ebsworth has formally replaced its managing partner structure with a company board, following the death of managing partner Juan Martinez in March.
Four insurers have agreed to fork over $1 million to settle an investor class action against lender Axsesstoday over an allegedly misleading prospectus for a bond offering, while claims against PricewaterhouseCoopers will move forward.
Federal police are investigating a large-scale data breach at an unnamed commercial health information organisation, the National Cyber Security Coordinator has revealed.
Billabong founder Gordon Merchant has lost his challenge to a decision by the ATO to increase his tax liability to $31 million, finding that he conducted a “wash sale” of his Billabong shares and engaged in dividend stripping on the sale of bio plastics manufacturer Plantic Technologies.
Pizza Hut has paid $2.5 million in penalties for breaching spam laws when it sent more than 10 million unsolicited marketing messages to customers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has expressed concerns that France-based Louis Dreyfus’ proposed acquisition of ASX-traded cotton gin operator Namoi Cotton could substantially lessen competition and lead to higher prices for ginning services.
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