On 17 November 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Australia and China had concluded a free trade agreement that has been under negotiation since April 2005. The ChAFTA is the latest of a series of FTAs concluded by the Australian Coalition Government since coming into power in September … Read more

On 5 November 2014 Queensland Rail requested an extension to the termination date of QR Network’s (2008) June 2010 Access Undertaking (2008 Access Undertaking), which is currently set to expire on 31 December 2014. QR requested this extension following submission of Queensland Rail’s Draft Access Undertaking 1 (AU1) which is proposed to replace the 2008 … Read more

In brief   Earlier this month, the High Court of Australia delivered its judgement, unanimously overturning the NSW Court of Appeal, in Brookfield Multiplex Ltd v Owners Corporation Strata Plan 61288 [2014] HCA 36. The High Court held that the builder of an apartment complex did not owe a common law duty of care to … Read more

Despite its relatively small size (approximately 110,000km with a population of four million people), Liberia, the oldest republic in Africa, is a resource-rich country with significant deposits of iron ore, gold and diamonds. The West African mining industry is facing significant headwinds from the combined effect of: the Ebola virus outbreak, which has caused the … Read more

On 4 September 2014, the Australian Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (Committee) submitted its report and recommendation on the adoption of the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) as Australian law. The majority of the Committee supported the adoption of KAFTA as Australian law, and recommended that binding treaty action be taken by the Australian Government. … Read more

Two EU Directives were passed in 2013 which mandate annual reports on payments to governments by companies in the extractive industries which are incorporated or listed in the European Union. The UK government has issued its response paper following its consultation on implementing the provisions of the Accounting Directive. It sets out how those aspects … Read more

The Mining Law 20/2014 of 18 August 2014 (the New Mining Law) came into force in Mozambique on 22 August 2014 replacing the previous mining regime under Mining Law 14/2002 of 26 June 2002 (except in relation to mining contracts that were in force prior to 22 August 2014).1 The New Mining Law was precipitated … Read more

The provisions of the Sustainable Planning (Infrastructure Charges) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (Qld) (Amendment Act) which amended the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 (Qld) (SPA) and the South-East Queensland (Distribution and Retail Restructuring) Act 2009 (SEQ Water Act) commenced on 4 July 2014 implementing amendments to the infrastructure charging provisions in the SPA and … Read more