Whilst 2002 saw Australia become the first country to introduce legislation relating to civilian drone use, current strict drone regulations have caused commercial drone operations in Australia to lag behind those in other parts of the world.

The long awaited Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Illegal Phoenixing) Bill 2019 was passed by Federal parliament on 5 February and received Royal Assent on 17 February 2020.  The relevant provisions of the Phoenixing Bill commence as follows:

• Sections 1-4 on the day of Royal Assent on 17 February 2020;
• Schedules 1 and 2 on 18 February 2020; and
• Schedules 3 and 4 on 1 April 2020.

The reforms will give ASIC, liquidators and the ATO new powers to help deter and disrupt illegal phoenix activities, and prosecute culpable directors and associated persons.

Both businesses and individuals are already feeling the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, even during what appears to be its early stages. Over the last month Holman Webb has received numerous enquiries from businesses of all sizes, who are looking to review their contracts to see how they may exit (or how the other party may exit), if doing so becomes necessary.

On 25 March, the NSW Parliament passed the COVID-19 Legislation Amendment (Emergency Measures) Act 2020 (‘the Act’) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Act implements emergency measures and addressees various matters concerning Retail Trading, Environmental Planning and Local Government. The Act also makes important amendments with respect to landlords and tenants.

Last week The New York Times released an article focussed on facial recognition technology. The piece examined Clearview AI, a company which whilst being virtually unknown, is, according to the New York Times, already being used by over 600 law enforcement agencies internationally. The company is reported to have already scraped over 3 billion images from across the internet.

Tal Williams, Partner within Holman Webb’s Technology Law and Business, Corporate and Commercial groups will be presenting at Greenlight ITC's upcoming CyberSafety Brunch and Learn 2020 event – taking place on 21 February at Mantra Hotel in Chatswood.

Before midnight on 31 December 2019, review all discretionary trust deeds and amend them to satisfy the no foreign beneficiary requirement and the no amendment requirement.

• Should lawyers expressly encourage clients to consider the organisation's values when considering their advice?
• Directors and senior executives must put in a serious effort to understand the culture of their organisation.
• Legislative change to the financial services provisions of the Corporations Act have introduced a new test that applies to all dishonesty offences.

As many readers will be aware, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in May 2018. Since the introduction of the regulation, there have been a range of interesting developments, some of which this piece takes a close look at.

Holman Webb's Insurance Team is delighted to invite readers to attend our upcoming October insurance breakfast seminar.