The NSW Government has removed the contentious provision in its class actions bill allowing the Supreme Court to distribute the undistributed part of a fund of damages to charities or public interest beneficiaries, a move that should be welcomed by all potential defendants to a class action.

Many of you will recall that in previous Alerts we have advised you regarding the proposed adoption of wide ranging reforms to personal property securities law in Australia.

APRA's regulation of life insurers is undergoing change, with the release of a discussion paper and draft prudential standards on audit and actuarial requirements, governance requirements and fit and proper requirements.

NSW's class action laws will be based on the Federal and Victorian regimes, but with some unique features.

The Queensland Government has created a new racing control body, Racing Queensland Limited. This body, an amalgamation of the previous racing control bodies for thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing in Queensland, has been granted the powers to manage the three codes of racing.

Following a drawn out process by Victoria's Department of Justice, Tabcorp Wagering (Vic) Pty Ltd (Tabcorp registrant), Victoria Licence Bid Co Pty Ltd (Tatts Group registrant) and Ladbrokes plc (Ladbrokes registrant) have been short-listed and invited to apply for Victoria's multi-billion dollar wagering and sporting betting licence

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) is due to hand down its Discussion Paper in relation to its review of federal privacy laws on 1 September 2007.

The text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a new international intellectual property agreement on enforcement obligations aimed at countering copyright and trade mark piracy, has been settled.

The Tasmanian Government has announced the release of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill 2009.

The Uniloc case is a reminder that a patent system can indeed be a very powerful ally in any IP protection structure.

Until amended again, the Corporations Act states that chairmen both could and couldn't vote undirected proxies.

Queensland is introducing labour hire licensing laws, which could affect companies even if located outside Queensland.

Despite subdued market activity, the first half of 2012 has revealed clear trends that have emerged in public M&A deals.

There is no automatic bar to maintaining proceedings merely because an arbitration is on between some related parties.

Australian companies with an international presence risk falling foul of international anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws.

The IGA has only had an extremely small impact on meeting the primary objective of reducing harm to problem gamblers.

Victorian ban on online betting kiosks overturned by the Federal Court.

The legislation will give effect to the recommendations resulting from the recent statutory review of the Act.

The Federal Government's proposed Resource Super Profits Tax has attracted a lot of attention, but what does it actually involve? How will it operate? And how attractive will it make Australia as a target for investment - or M&A?

It is proposed that IWA will be an independent body of experts, with members from both the private and public sectors.