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The long anticipated Federal WorkChoices regulations are now available online.

Here are links to the two essential documents:

The Workplace Relations Regulations 2006 (291 pages) 

The Explanatory Statement (179 pages)

Guardian Guidelines: An Overview

Guardian Guidelines are important not only if both parents of the child pass away but also for the surviving parent of a child. After the death of a parent, the surviving parent often experiences extreme isolation and difficultly in decision making. What a comfort for the survivor to know that they have already thought through many of the large life issues affecting the child with the parent who has passed away.

Our Desires for my Children LawPack leads you through these issues and creates a place for your thoughts to be documented and updated over time.

Here is a selection of the issues that we encourage parents to consider:

• Place to live - where would you like your child to be brought up?
• Others to be involved in you child’s upbringing and to what extent
• Medical / health / developmental issues
• Preferred approach to discipline
• Preferred approach to character development
• Religious instruction/involvement
• Family/cultural/traditional values
• Education preferences
• Extra Curricular Activity
• Money Management
• Part-time employment
• Travel

Our Desires for my Children LawPack provides a convenient way to collect these thoughts in an ordered manner with many prompts to help you in the detail of the guidelines you provide.

The main features of the new Federal WorkChoices System can be summarised as follows:

• A national industrial relations system which will cover 85% of Australian employees;
• The general application of five minimum employments standards to be known as the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard;
• The determination of wages (and casual loadings) by a new body, The Australian Fair Pay Commission – as indicated earlier, the commission was constituted from the date of royal assent;
• A simplified process of making workplace agreements (including collective agreements and Australian workplace agreements).  Workplace agreements will exclude the operation of awards and will no longer have to meet the “no disadvantage” test which applied under the old system;
• Decreasing relevance of the award system;
• Availability of different types of dispute resolution processes;
• Reduced eligibility for employees to make application for unfair dismissal;
• Increased options for employers in relation to dealing with industrial action;
• Significant changes to a union right of entry.  There is no right of entry for discussion purposes at all where employees are on AWA’s.

Find Legislation: We have included links on this site to the legislation home pages for every Australian State & Territory plus the Federal Parliament.

• ACT
• Commonwealth
• NSW
• NT
• Qld
• SA
• Tas
• Vic

Save this site and www.onlinelegal.com.au to your Favourites as the Gateways to Australian legal updates and resources.

Legal Dictionary: We have looked under many rocks on the web and linked to what we believe to be the most informative free legal dictionary on the web. Yes it is US based, but we have found the content to be excellent starting point even for Australian law.

A legal dictionary will give you not just a definition but usually an example of how the word is used.

Take the confusion out of legal jargon today by searching on this Free Legal Dictionary.

More Free Legal Resources: www.onlinelegal.com.au

The High Court has held that property and shares transferred to a spouse before a barrister was made bankrupt were available to trustees acting for his creditors.

In a unanimous decision, the court upheld an appeal by the creditor’s trustees from a majority decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court, which found in favour of the barrister’s wife and family trust.

The case involved barrister John Cummins, who became bankrupt in December 2000. At 30 January 2001, his assets totalled $259,614 and his liabilities $1.04 million.

His largest creditor is the Australian Taxation Office which instituted proceedings to recover $955,672.92, following the lodging of income tax returns in February 2000 for the years 1991-92 to 1998-99. Mr Cummins had not lodged any returns since 1955.

In August 1987, Mr Cummins transferred to his wife his interest in the family home and transferred to Aymcopic, the trustee of the Cummins family trust, his shares in Wentworth Chambers in Phillip Street, Sydney.

The trustees in bankruptcy sought declarations that the transfers were void, pursuant to section 121 of the Commonwealth Bankruptcy Act.

In the Federal Court, Justice Ronald Sackville made the declarations and ordered consequential relief. He held that the main purpose of the transfers was to prevent property becoming divisible among Mr Cummins’s creditors or to hinder or delay the process of making property available for division among creditors.

Mrs Cummins and Aymcopic appealed to the Full Court which, by majority,allowed the appeal. The trustees appealed to the High Court, who upheld the appeal.

To read the judgment click here

Source: CCH

This was the result even before the recent amendments to the Bankruptcy Act forshaddowed in the Attorney General’s media release in December 2005:

Media Release 227/2005

7 December 2005

CHANGES TARGET BANKRUPTCY ABUSE

Practices which undermine the integrity of the bankruptcy system are the target of a Bill introduced into Parliament today, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has said.

“These changes will strengthen existing laws which allow for the recovery of property disposed of prior to bankruptcy or owned by a third person but acquired by that person using the bankrupt’s resources,” Mr Ruddock said. 

“Currently, bankrupts can avoid these laws by, for instance, transferring assets to family members or close associates when insolvency is looming and then deliberately delaying the commencement of the bankruptcy.”

The most significant amendments include:

• increasing the time limit for recovering under-market value transfers to related parties;
• creating a rebuttable presumption of insolvency where a bankrupt has failed to keep proper books, accounts and records; and
• voiding those transfers where it is reasonable for the transferee to infer that the bankrupt was trying to avoid creditors. 

Further changes will allow for the recovery of property or money acquired by a person in the lead up to bankruptcy as a result of the bankrupt’s financial contributions.

“The amendments have been developed after extensive public consultation and show the Government has listened carefully to community concerns on the proposals,” Mr Ruddock said.

“They strike an appropriate balance between the rights of individuals to arrange their affairs as they see fit and the rights of creditors to be paid what is duly owed to them.”

www.law.gov.au/ag

The form of land contract that you sign will vary across Australia, however these tips will help.

1.       The contract should be on the most commonly used standard contract form.

2.       If a blank space is not filled in ask why not.

3.       Building Inspections:

• Allow yourself enough time not only to have the building inspection done and the written report provided to you, but also to search Local Authority records for the building approvals noted on their records.
• Avoid clauses that only allow you to terminate if there are “structural problems”. What amounts to a “structural” issue is often argued about. Ideally the contract should be subject to the report being to your satisfaction.

4.       Pest Inspections:

• Again allow yourself enough time inspection done and the written report provided to you.
• If pests are found, consider requesting a more invasive inspection (e.g. by holes being drilled and cameras looking in behind cladding).

5.       If you expect non-fixed items to be included, make sure that they are specifically identified in the contract, “as inspected by the Buyer.”

Remember that the agent is working for the Seller and wants a sale. Ask your lawyer to look over the Contract before you sign it. This doesn’t usually take long and is the best, sometimes only and certainly the cheapest time to make any changes.

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How do I know what lawyer to appoint, whether they know what they are talking about and whether they are reasonable with their costs?

The single best way is to ask friends and family and find out what lawyers they have used and what the experience has been like.

Here’s my top five questions, for the lawyer who will be managing your file:

5.       How much of this kind of legal work have you done in the last year?

4.       Can you do this legal work for a fixed fee?

3.       If you can’t provide the legal advice for a fixed fee, can we set a cost budget and you let me know before that budget is exceeded? (If yes, how do you manage that internally? How often is your time entered in your time recording system? Can you email me a cost update report on request?)

2.       What outlays will I be charged for and how will I be charged?

And my number one question for the lawyer you intend to hire:

1.       Will I be able to get you on the phone for extra questions? (Of course the answer will almost certainly be “yes”. Test them a couple of days later by trying to get them on the phone and see how they go.)

More resources:

www.onlinelegal.com.au