Man­u­fac­tur­ing is key to almost every sup­ply chain and busi­ness, adding val­ue across all sec­tors in Aus­tralia. In a tumul­tuous time for the glob­al econ­o­my, the Aus­tralian man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor is fac­ing strong head­winds from over­seas com­pe­ti­tion and domes­tic labour mar­ket constraints.

It’s imper­a­tive that busi­ness­es remain flex­i­ble and adapt to chang­ing indus­try out­looks in order to piv­ot when required and keep growth prospects strong over the com­ing years. We advise a range of clients on legal issues fac­ing the sec­tor includ­ing reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance, cor­po­rate set-up, com­mer­cial con­tracts, sup­ply chain man­age­ment, data pro­tec­tion and intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty, ESG, real estate, prod­uct lia­bil­i­ty, employ­ment and work place safe­ty laws, and dis­pute resolution.

We pro­vide com­pre­hen­sive solu­tions to the legal chal­lenges faced by our clients as they look to expand pro­duc­tion, dri­ve prof­it growth, increase effi­cien­cy, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and sustainability.

Emerg­ing issues fac­ing the sec­tor include invest­ment in process con­trols, imple­ment­ing cloud-based appli­ca­tions, as well as sup­ply chain, logis­tics and improved cus­tomer ser­vice expe­ri­ence. Many man­u­fac­tur­ers are also turn­ing to emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy to dri­ve effi­cien­cies and cus­tomer util­i­ty. The fastest-grow­ing areas of adop­tion in the next few years are expect­ed to be next-gen­er­a­tion enter­prise resource plan­ning (ERP) sys­tems, autonomous sys­tems and equip­ment and arti­fi­cial intelligence.

Use­ful links:

The ACCC pro­vides a num­ber of guides and pub­li­ca­tions pro­vid­ing use­ful infor­ma­tion to manufacturers.

No mat­ter how rou­tine or com­plex the busi­ness issues you face, Mer­i­tas’ net­work of law firms is with you every step of the way. Mar­ket-lead­ing firms offer a full range of legal ser­vices, which enable you to do busi­ness any­where. Wise coun­sel and prac­ti­cal solu­tions are just a phone call or e‑mail away. Dis­cov­er the breadth and depth of the prac­tice and indus­try sec­tor capa­bil­i­ties avail­able to you through Meritas.

Publications

Cur­rent state of the con­struc­tion and infra­struc­ture market

The build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try is sig­nif­i­cant and com­plex, with a land­scape which is con­stant­ly changing.It is cur­rent­ly char­ac­terised by: sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic invest­ment in…

Q&A with Swaab's new building and construction partner, Mark Glynn

Why did you choose Swaab?When I first met with Mary Digiglio, Swaab’s man­ag­ing part­ner and Helen Kow­al, part­ner con­struc­tion and stra­ta and…

Might a Receiv­er of a dis­tressed devel­op­ment project owe a duty of care to sub­se­quent own­ers of the lots when completed?

Upon tak­ing pos­ses­sion and con­trol of an incom­plete dis­tressed devel­op­ment asset, a secured financier will more often than not look to…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly on 20 May 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly…

Press Release | Swaab’s James Skel­ton Appoint­ed Chair of Glob­al Emerg­ing Lead­ers Advi­so­ry Board at Mer­i­tas AGM in Mex­i­co City

In this piv­otal lead­er­ship role, James will guide ini­tia­tives to strength­en rela­tion­ships among Emerg­ing Lead­ers across Mer­i­tas’ 175 glob­al mem­ber…

Press Release | New Part­ner Appoint­ment — Mark Glynn

With over two decades in the indus­try, Mark is a recog­nised front-end con­struc­tion lawyer spe­cial­ist with­in the build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try. Mark…