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OAIC Privacy Survey Reveals Insights from COVID-19 Australia

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has recently published the 2020 Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey (ACAPS). The ACAPS provides insights to Australians’ views and understanding of privacy and privacy-related issues. Interestingly, the ACAPS also includes a snapshot of those views during the COVID-19 outbreak. COVID-19 Interestingly, the survey was carried out …
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An impartial summary of the new APSC Guidance on the Personal behaviour of APS employees on social media

The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has published revised guidance on the use of social media by Australian Government public servants. This comes just over a year after the High Court found that anonymous tweets can be a breach of the Australian Public Service’s Code of Conduct (Comcare v Banerji [2019] HCA 23). In that …
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Government announces plan to extend temporary relief in response to COVID-19

We previously published an article about the Federal Government’s legislative response to the economic impact of COVID-19 and the introduction of the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Act 2020 which came into force on 25 March 2020. You can view this article here. The purpose of the legislative changes was to ease the financial impact …
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Launching Real Estate into the Digital Domain: The transition to e-Conveyancing in the ACT

The ACT is following in the footsteps of other Australian states and working toward an electronic conveyancing system. It has been on the horizon for months, with the implementation of gradual measures to make the transition, including identity verifications and the removal of requirements for original signatures on documents. So what could e-Conveyancing mean for …
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Genuine redundancies during the COVID-19 pandemic

In the recent case of Browne v MySharedServices Pty Ltd [2020] FWC 4445, the Fair Work Commission (Commission) has reasserted the importance of consultation, even during the current COVID-19 pandemic. In this case, Mr Matthew Browne (the Employee) was dismissed without his employer, MySharedServices Pty Ltd (the Employer), undertaking any consultation prior to his termination. …
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How should you calculate sick leave?

In a recent case Mondelez Australia Pty Ltd v Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union [2020] HCA 29 (Mondelez Case) the High Court settled some long-standing uncertainty about the meaning of “a day” under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (Fair Work Act). The National Employment Standards (NES), through the operation of …
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ACAT fines Lessor for non-compliance with Tribunal order

It is vital to the administration of justice and the rule of law that orders of the Courts and Tribunals are complied with. The ACT Civil & Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) has recently fined a litigant for the deliberate flouting of orders: Brynes v Wang (Residential Tenancies) [2020] ACAT 40. Order In this case, the Tenant …
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Case Update: Employee compensated $200,000 after being dismissed for sharing a Hitler meme

We previously wrote about the decision of the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission in the case of Scott Tracey v BP Refinery (Kwinana) Pty Ltd [2020] FWCFB 820.  This case involved a Western Australia BP employee, Mr Tracey, who was dismissed with payment in lieu of notice after sharing a meme video of …
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