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2021 AGM Season: Use of Technology – Will Covid-19 Provisions Become Permanent?

During the Covid Crisis, the Government has twice had to introduce changes to allow companies to meet and carry out key functions such as executing documents without breaching public health orders. While there are provisions in place to allow the 2021 AGM season to proceed, permanent changes to the Corporations Act are currently under consideration.

COVID-19 response measures regarding retail and commercial lease disputes and assistance for commercial landlords

A new declaration has been released which requires landlords to negotiate in good faith with tenants who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and breached lease provisions as a result. The ACT government is also providing assistance to commercial landlords who have provided rent relief to tenants.

Privacy Act under highly anticipated review

The Federal Government last year released the terms of reference for a proposed review of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act). The Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner, Angelene Faulk, has praised the proposed review as a “landmark opportunity” to update Australia’s privacy landscape and ensure it is equipped to respond to the “new …
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Notifiable Data Breaches – 6 months of lessons from the OAIC

Notifiable Data Breaches Report (July-December 2020) The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has released its twice-yearly report on notifiable data breaches reported in the second half of 2020 539 data breaches were notified to the OAIC under the Notifiable Data Breach Scheme (NDB Scheme) in the second half of last year, with 38% …
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The Privacy Act and its functions in Workplace Investigations

How does the Privacy Act apply to a workplace investigation? Workplace investigations are typically used to investigate matters such as misconduct, bullying accusations or breaches of an organisation’s Policies or Code of Conduct. Any workplace investigation involves balancing the sensitive nature of the allegations, and work health and safety obligations. However, it is also important …
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Check In CBR – but don’t check out of your privacy obligations

Everyone across Canberra has seen the Check In CBR posters at venues they have visited. Whether you’re sceptical about the process or happy to Check In, a lot of questions are raised about how the information collected through Check In CBR is used and stored. What are the contact tracing obligations for non-essential businesses in …
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Qantas JobKeeper case – How to properly calculate JobKeeper payments

In a recent decision of Qantas Airways Limited v Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia (the JobKeeper Case) the Federal Court of Australia considered and determined the correct application of the JobKeeper provisions contained in section 789GDA(2)(b) of the Fair Work Act 2009. Relevant JobKeeper provision Section 789GDA(2)(b) contains the “minimum payment guarantee”, which operates to …
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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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