Businesses, employees and customers – COVID-19 vaccinations Much debate has ensued regarding whether a business can require its employees or customers to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Recently, Safe Work Australia provided guidance on employers’ duties under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) in relation to preventing COVID-19 risks in the workplace. Duty […]

The National Construction Code of Australia (NCC) provides a uniform set of technical specifications which applies to the construction of all new buildings within Australia. The NCC consists of a suite of three interrelated volumes. The first volume focuses on multi-residential, commercial, industrial, and public buildings and structures.

Since the recent Australian state border closures,[ii] questions have arisen about the constitutionality of impeding free movement between the States. In fact, at the beginning of the state border closures, Alexander Downer tweeted “I don’t think an Australian State can legally close its borders to other Australians under section 117 of the Constitution.”

The Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) (Act) introduces a myriad of statutory measures in the building and construction sector including a new statutory duty of care, registration requirements, and regulated design requirements, amongst other things. The new statutory duty of care is particularly interesting because it follows recent prominent high-rise apartment building defects and is intended to overcome difficulties which apartment owners previously faced in claiming pure economic loss from high rise apartment builders.

Woolworths Group Limited recently caused a stir after announcing a trial ban on cash payments at 11 Metro CBD stores in Sydney and Melbourne. Members of the public are divided, with some saying that this is corporate Australia forcibly driving consumers towards a cashless society, and others saying that this is simply the inevitability of progress.