On November 27, 2009 the Minister for Small Business Dr Craig Emerson announced the establishment of an expert panel to consider unconscionable conduct. The panel will provide advice to the Government by the end of January 2010 on some outstanding issues raised in recent parliamentary inquiries into the Franchising Code of Conduct and the provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA) that prohibit unconscionable conduct. In the specific context of franchising, the panel will be considering th

Default offers in Australia's retail electricity market were designed to eliminate loyalty penalties and simplify plan comparisons, but how exactly do regulators calculate these price caps? The Australian Energy Regulator and Essential Services Commission now employ similar bottom-up methodologies that stack various cost components to determine what a prudent retailer would need to charge a representative customer.

While Australia's energy mix may be a policy decision, what everyone really needs is reliability at a reasonable price.

The NSW election saw the major parties campaigning on big spending promises for transport and infrastructure projects.

In April 2011, our Real Estate team surveyed a select group of international investors about their attitudes towards investment in the Asia-Pacific.

We recommend investors err on the side of caution and maintain a slight underweight allocation to Australian equities.

Many AREITs are now trading above their net asset values so we recommend investors retain a modest underweight exposure.

About 18 months ago I had two separate conversations, one with a franchisor founder, the other with a private equity firm. They each lamented the other's lack of understanding of their needs.

This is a useful tool to help to understand the potential areas of exposure to your business from the Eurozone crisis.

Low Australian domestic cash rates and climbing FIRB barriers could present a golden opportunity for domestic investors.

This is a response to early observations of the White Paper and highlights ideas on how the objectives may be achieved.

A member state exit could bring increased liquidity problems and difficulty in raising traditional sources of finance.

Modest global growth is expected in 2015, as domestic demand in the US should withstand weakness in China and Europe.

The fundamentals of a US recovery may be robust, but outside of the United States, the global recovery is faltering.

This month's newsletter features a great article about learning lessons from those who have made investment mistakes.

The 'behaviour gap' is when Investors try to time the market, rather than focus on the long term time IN the market.

Daniel Minihan, the Director of Wealth Management, takes a closer look at the change of the top stocks in the S&P500.

On 27 January 2004, the International Chamber of Commerce released an 'Issues Paper on Internet Governance'

Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) payments by US residents to foreign financial institutions can be subject to a 30% withholding tax from 1 January 2013 unless the foreign financial institution meets reporting obligations with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Common types of risk in business and how businesses should implement risk management into their governance.