Understanding Materiality: The Key To A Strong ESG Strategy

When you add your initials to a legal document, you authenticate its contents.

Misrepresentation in commercial contracts can expose businesses to significant legal and financial consequences, particularly where inaccurate statements, misleading disclosures, or unrealistic forecasts induce entry into a transaction. Under Australian law, parties may pursue remedies through both common law misrepresentation claims and statutory misleading or deceptive conduct provisions under the Australian Consumer Law, with potential outcomes including rescission, damages, and compensation orders.

Frustration of contract is widely misunderstood in Australian law, with many assuming contracts automatically end when circumstances become difficult or expensive. This guide examines the strict legal test applied by Australian courts, explaining when supervening events truly discharge contractual obligations and why financial hardship, increased costs, and commercial difficulties typically fall short of the frustration threshold.

Force majeure clauses in Australian contracts determine whether extraordinary events can suspend, delay, or excuse contractual obligations, but relief depends entirely on precise wording and strict compliance with notice and mitigation requirements. Understanding when businesses can legally invoke force majeure versus when they risk breach of contract claims is critical for managing commercial disruption.

Consideration is a legal term used to refer to the benefit that parties to a legal agreement or a contract receive.

Explanation of the law of deceit & fraudulent misrepresentation.

You can suspend performance where your contract permits it, legislation authorises it, or dependent obligations legally justify withholding the particular performance. An unpaid invoice alone does not automatically allow you to stop work. A right to terminate for serious breach also does not automatically create a right to suspend. Unauthorised suspension may itself constitute breach or repudiation.

A contractor agreement determines who pays when work goes wrong. Independent contractors carry their own commercial risk, unlike employees, so the agreement allocates that risk in detail. Liability commonly arises from breach of contract, intellectual property infringement, and breaches of confidentiality. Indemnities, liability caps and insurance requirements are the three tools that allocate it. Australian law puts limits on that allocation. Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply automatically, and no contract can exclude them.

Dividends are a common way for companies to distribute value to shareholders, but whether to declare or pay a dividend is not simply a commercial decision. Directors must ensure that any dividend complies with the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act), the company’s constitution and relevant governance requirements, while considering their duties to the company and its creditors.

On 26 June 2026, the Federal Court of Australia delivered judgment in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited [2026] FCA 832, ordering Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited (MSAL) to pay $10.3 million in penalties and $1.2 million in costs.

The new Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards have been released by the Australian Accounting Standards Board and are set to transform corporate reporting, starting with climate-related financial disclosures.

In the dynamic landscape of M&A, the Share Purchase Agreement (‘SPA') governs not only the legal terms but also the financial outcome of the deal.

The agricultural sector is facing heightened scrutiny in today's credit markets. Rising interest rates and new investment vehicles are reshaping expectations and making capital more difficult to secure.

The most impactful agricultural technologies address clearly defined problems.

Vaughan Strawbridge, Joseph Hansell and Kathryn Evans of FTI Consulting were engaged as Voluntary Administrators of Sara Lee, a leader in Australia's frozen desserts and bakery sector.

Agriculture is attracting a broader mix of investors than ever before.

In late 2020, the NSW Government unveiled its Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap to replace coal-fired power with renewable energy, focusing on developing Renewable Energy Zones (REZs).

In recent years, we have seen a notable rise in legal proceedings that require quantifying an account of profits in addition to damages, either by independent experts engaged by the plaintiff or defendant or joint or court-appointed experts.

Different forms of value have different meanings, and these differences are crucial for valuation practitioners, legal professionals in commercial disputes, business leaders in financial decision-making and for financial...

Australia's financial sector has experienced significant transformation over the past decade through comprehensive regulatory reform, but regulatory clarity doesn't always create operational simplicity.