The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has issued a guide to assist public officials and agencies in identifying and managing conflicts of duties. The guide relates to conflicts of duties, not conflicts between a public duty and a personal or…
Section 220 of the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) declares that a council is ‘is a body politic of the State’ and ‘is not a body corporate (including a corporation)‘. Amongst other things, this declaration is considered to largely shield…
For the first time in the context of a local council, the recent decision of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) in Shrestha v City of Ryde Council [2024] NSWIRComm 1005 has considered the interactions between differing lengths of probationary…
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (the Commission) has published its annual report for the year 2022-23 (the Report), outlining the nature of complaints received and their investigative processes. The Report reflects a substantial increase in complaints reported to the Commission by…
The Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023 (the Act) was recently passed by the New South Wales Parliament, and has commenced operation. The purpose of this landmark legislation is to give effect to the commitments under the 2015 Paris…
The Department of Planning and Environment is publicly exhibiting a new set of local infrastructure contribution practice notes and seeking feedback until Friday 23 February 2024. The Department’s website states that it ‘has undertaken the first comprehensive rewrite of all…
The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) has recently published a report (the report) on the outcome of its follow-up audit on councils, to determine their compliance with the requirement to publish returns of interest lodged by councillors and designated persons…
Introduction Following the Respect@Work report into harassment and discrimination in the workplace, many changes have been made to the harassment and discrimination legal framework at the Federal level, including extending the protections offered under the Age Discrimination Act 2004, Disability…
Introduction On 10 November 2023, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Flood Planning) Regulation 2023 (EPA Reg Amendment) was published on the NSW legislation website. It amended the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (EPA Reg) and replaced references to the Floodplain…
In a world where anyone can post content online, including anonymously, the traditional understanding of a ‘publisher’ for the purposes of defamation law has been a vexed issue. Several High Court decisions in recent years have tried to define who…
The Supreme Court of NSW (Supreme Court) has considered whether a landowner, who was successful in an appeal against the failure of the council to recategorise its land as farmland, was subsequently entitled to a refund of the amount of…
Following the changeover of Government after the 25 March 2023 election to the Labor Minns government, the Governor has issued several administrative orders: Administrative Arrangements (58th Parliament) Order 2023 (58th AA), Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes—Miscellaneous) Order (No 2) 2023, Administrative Arrangements…