The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) this week released its 12-month Insights Report for the Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) Scheme (Report).  The Report shows trends and noteworthy statistics from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, reporting an uptick in notifications and identifying the most common cyber trends leading to a requirement to notify. The OAIC notes that many entities have taken a proactive approach to engage with the OAIC and it has…

Continuing on from our blog series “Insurance After Hayne”, we will be posting short interviews with industry and legal experts on the Hayne recommendations and the proposed reforms to the industry.   In the second instalment of the series, we were joined by John Price, Lead Ombudsman for General Insurance Decisions at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), to discuss Commissioner Hayne’s recommendation to provide for legally enforceable provisions of industry codes. If industry codes are…

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Design and Distribution Obligations and Product Intervention Powers) Act 2019 passed Parliament last week and received royal assent shortly after. It introduces design and distribution obligations into the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), requiring financial services entities to consider the design of their retail financial products and the way they are distributed.  The amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) also give the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) power to intervene…

In the decision of Redding v Manly Life Saving Club Inc & Anor [2018] NSW DC 278 District Court Judge Russell found in favour of the plaintiff, a 16 year old girl and member of the Manly Life Saving Club.  The plaintiff was assisting in running a Manly Club BBQ to raise funds. Whilst assisting in clean-up she walked through an upstairs function room where 4 or 5 boys were playing an informal game of…

Dixon v Apostolic Church Australia Ltd [2018] WASCA was an appeal from a judgment of the District Court of Western Australia that had found the Apostolic Church liable in negligence to Dixon who sustained injuries when she struck a tree whilst participating in a go karting event organised by the Church.  Dixon was a volunteer taking photographs and video footage at a conference organised by the Church.  The Church had established a temporary go kart…

In the decision of Lynch v Cavallo [2018] NSW DC, the court on an interlocutory motion was required to revisit the question of whether a professional jockey can sue another professional jockey injured in a professionally organised horse race. In Goode v Angland [2017] NSWCA 311 the Court of Appeal held that a professional horse race was a recreational activity and that falling from the horse was an obvious risk of that activity within the…

What’s happened? The Australian Attorney-General’s department has announced a proposed new regime that would make changes to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act). The proposed changes would see a significant expansion of the powers afforded to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), particularly with respect to the scope of penalties that may be handed out by the OAIC. The Attorney-General’s department states that the proposed changes are aimed at increasing online protection for…