Pub­li­ca­tions

Sep 2, 2025

Using your con­struc­tion con­tract to man­age and mit­i­gate con­trac­tor insol­ven­cy risk

Intro­duc­tionThe risk of con­trac­tor insol­ven­cy mid way though a con­struc­tion project in the cur­rent mar­ket is real and real­ly expensive.This arti­cle pro­vides guid­ance to those under­tak­ing con­struc­tion works and iden­ti­fies a num­ber of con­tract pro­vi­sions which, if includ­ed in the con­struc­tion con­tract, can assist a devel­op­er to iden­ti­fy and then man­age a con­trac­tor insol­ven­cy event…

Sep 2, 2025

NSW Fair Trad­ing com­pli­ance | What to do if you receive a complaint

You receive a let­ter from NSW Fair Trad­ing (OFT) in your inbox refer­ring to a ​‘com­plaint’ being lodged against you/​your agency and requir­ing infor­ma­tion to be pro­vid­ed with­in a few days. It’s daunt­ing to receive one of these let­ters, espe­cial­ly if it’s your first. You’ll be won­der­ing who com­plained, what did you do…

Sep 1, 2025

AS4000:2025 – What is all the fuss about?

With the recent release of the updat­ed AS4000:2025, for the first time in over 28 years, many stake­hold­ers in the con­struc­tion indus­try are ques­tion­ing if there is an impact on their risk pro­file when using this updat­ed AS4000:2025. The sim­ple answer, by Stan­dards Aus­tralia, is there has been no sig­nif­i­cant change to…

Aug 26, 2025

Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence Fol­ly Called Out by Fair Work Commission

In the recent Fair Work Com­mis­sion deci­sion Mr Bran­den Dey­sel v Elec­tra Lift Co.[2025] FWC 2289, Deputy Pres­i­dent Slevin applied a crit­i­cal lens to the use of Chat­G­PT by the Appli­cant who was seek­ing an exten­sion of time to make an appli­ca­tion to deal with con­tra­ven­tions involv­ing dismissal.One fac­tor the FWC exam­ines in…

Aug 11, 2025

Assess­ing Scope 3 Emis­sions: An analy­sis of the impli­ca­tions of Den­man Aberdeen Muswell­brook Scone Healthy Envi­ron­ment Group Inc v MACH Ener­gy Aus­tralia Pty Ltd [2025] NSW­CA 163 (the Mount Pleas­ant decision)

Intro­duc­tionOn July 24, 2025, the New South Wales Court of Appeal (NSW­CA) deliv­ered a land­mark rul­ing in Den­man Aberdeen Muswell­brook Scone Healthy Envi­ron­ment Group Inc v MACH Ener­gy Aus­tralia Pty Ltd [2025] NSW­CA 163, over­turn­ing the approval of a sig­nif­i­cant coal mine expan­sion at Mount Pleas­ant, near Muswell­brook. The deci­sion, the result of…

Jul 21, 2025

Work­place Rela­tion­ships: The Legal Posi­tion (Cold­play Con­cert Edition)

The recent sto­ry of col­leagues (a Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer (CPO)) whose appar­ent rela­tion­ship was cap­tured on a ​“kiss cam” (jum­botron) at a Cold­play con­cert has cap­tured the pub­lic imag­i­na­tion, result­ing in thou­sands of arti­cles, memes and jokes. In the after­math of the inci­dent, the CEO has resigned…

Jul 7, 2025

Dis­missal for Dissent?

The recent unfair dis­missal deci­sion of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion, Shaun Turn­er v Dare­bin City Coun­cil [2025] FWC 1763, in which Deputy Pres­i­dent Clan­cy held that the dis­missal of an employ­ee for, among oth­er things, alleged com­ments in response to an Acknowl­edg­ment of Coun­try before a ​‘tool­box’ meet­ing, was unfair, has gar­nered…

Jul 7, 2025

Con­struc­tion con­tract time­frames and their inter­ac­tion with the NSW Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ment legislation.

Mark Glynn, Con­struc­tion Part­ner at Swaab con­sid­ers the recent deci­sion of Shar­vain Facades Pty Ltd (Admin­is­tra­tors Appoint­ed) v Roberts Co (NSW) Pty Ltd [2025] NSWSC 606TimeTime is an impor­tant aspect of the deliv­ery of a build­ing and con­struc­tion project.A suc­cess­ful project con­tract not only spec­i­fies the time with­in which the works must be car­ried…

Jul 4, 2025

10 Tips For Stra­ta Reme­di­al Con­struc­tion Contracts

Are you won­der­ing why your stra­ta work to repair or main­tain your stra­ta build­ing is over bud­get, rid­dled with delays, plagued with costs over­runs and vari­a­tions at every turn?It is impor­tant to con­sid­er and fol­low these steps:Before ten­der­ing for the work to be done, have your build­ing con­tract, con­sul­tan­cy agree­ment and/​or sep­a­rate…

Jul 2, 2025

Ope­nAI’s screen­less future on pause amidst trade mark dispute

Back­groundIn ear­ly May, Ope­nAI sur­prised the tech world with news of an esti­mat­ed $6.4 bil­lion part­ner­ship and acqui­si­tion involv­ing ​“io”, a new ven­ture led by renowned design­er Sir Jony Ive. Ive is best known for cre­at­ing icon­ic Apple prod­ucts like the iPhone and Apple Watch. The col­lab­o­ra­tion aims to devel­op a ground­break­ing…