May 27, 2011
The ALRC has released a report Managing Discovery: Discovery of Documents in Federal Courts.
The press release provides:
Advocating a facilitative approach Read the rest of this entry »
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has launched Principles on open public sector information at the Meta 2011 conference in Canberra.
The Principles provide a framework for government information management in Australia, setting out the central values of open public sector information – that it be freely available, easily discoverable, understandable, machine-readable and reusable. The Principles were developed by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner through a process of public consultation, and draw on considerable work in Australia and overseas into best practice government information management.
The principles are:
May 26, 2011
In three rulings relating to group proceedings issued under Part 4 of the Supreme Court Act Forrest J considered an application to regularise proceedings and an application to dismiss on the basis of an abuse of process in Matthews v SPI Electricity Pty Ltd Ruling Nos 1 and, Cohen v State of Victoria & Ors (No 2) and in Matthews v SPI Electricity Pty Ltd Ruling Nos 2 an application for summary judgment and to strike out aspects of the statement of claim.
The claim in Matthews arose out of the Black Saturday bush fires. The firm Oldham Naidoo (“Naidoo”) issued proceedings in the name of a Mr Keane for damages against SPI amongst others. Naidoo did not have instructions from Mr Keanne to issue the proceedings in his name. Keane asked Naidoo to remove him as a plaintiff, something that did not happen for another year. Matthews then replaced Keane as representative plaintiff. After Maurice Blackburn took over conduct of the proceeding it brought Naidoo’s actions to the attention of the court and applied to regularise the proceedings. The defendants resisted the application and sought variously to strike out the claim and obtain summary judgment.
In Cohen Naidoo issued a group proceeding in Dr Cohen’s name without his knowledge. Naidoo sought but failed to find a person to be substituted for Cohen. There had been a substantial history of amendments to the statement of claim. The court considered the application to strike out the proceeding as an abuse of process.
In opposing the application to regularise the proceeding SPI submitted Read the rest of this entry »
May 4, 2011
The Minister for Privacy Awareness, Brendan O’Connor, put out a press release stating:
It’s now Privacy Awareness Week. The year’s theme is Privacy: It’s all about you.
The week aims to increase awareness amongst all Australians of the importance of being aware of possible privacy infringements and what steps you can take to protect your privacy.
“Privacy is becoming a greater concern for the average Australian. That’s largely due to the surge in online activity and the greater possibility for collection of our personal information.”
“While it may Read the rest of this entry »