Regulatory authorities commonly issue statutory notices that require a person to furnish information or records. The Supreme Court recently considered such a notice, and provided useful guidance on the legal principles determinative of when a notice will be a valid…

The amended building and subdivision certification provisions contained in Part 6 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (other than those for Building Information Certificates) were postponed under transitional arrangements. They were supposed to come into force on 1…

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) has overturned a controversial decision of the Land and Environment Court (LEC) concerning the waste laws in NSW.  The decision confirms that any processed building and demolition waste temporarily stored on land for…

On 14 August 2019, the High Court of Australia in Glencore International AG v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] HCA 26   unanimously dismissed an application for an injunction to restrain the use of documents subject to legal professional privilege. The application was made…

In White v Sutherland Shire Council [2019] NSWCATAD 100 (‘White‘), Senior Member Isenberg dismissed an application for administrative review because she could not identify any legislation relevant to the Applicant’s complaints that would confer jurisdiction on the NSW Civil and…

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal has confirmed that it is not a breach of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (‘PPIP Act‘) to disclose personal information to a local council to enable the council to carry out investigations…

Legislation and codes of conduct apply to both State and local government employees in NSW. We are frequently asked whether the restrictions on conduct contained in such codes may infringe upon the implied right to freedom of political communication.  The…

In an earlier post (here), we blogged about some developments in the law surrounding clause 4.6 requests. As flagged in our earlier blog, there was an apparent tension between the the approach adopted by Basten JA in Al Maha Pty…

A Court of Appeal decision has left open the possibility that the amendments to the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) made in 2018 have expanded the scope of matters which can be the subject of a merit…

In the recent case of Council of the City of Sydney v Bishop [2019] NSWCA 157, the Court of Appeal has analysed the operation of s5F of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (CL Act).  This section sets out the meaning of…

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal has recently considered the extent to which a local council carries on a business for the purposes of the Fair Trading Act 1987 and the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA). The judgment contains…

The NSW Government recently released for public consultation, a discussion paper entitled “Building Stronger Foundations”. The release of this discussion paper comes in the wake of a number of recent media reports of allegedly shoddy building practices, the failure of…