OK, so we had some technical problems in today’s webinar.  Thanks for those who attended and sorry we left you hanging on the line. We recorded the webinar and it is being edited.  We expect to post it in the next few days.  I will post a link when it is available. In the meantime, […]

The much-anticipated emergency measures Bill has been tabled in Victorian Parliament today to create legislation to give effect to the Code and was passed this afternoon. However, the Act is only ‘enabling legislation’, ie it is legislation that allows the creation of regulations that give effect to the Code, recently published by the National Cabinet. […]

At 1:00pm on 24 April 2020, Abilene Singh and I will be presenting a webinar on the COVID-19 legislation that is expected to be debated before Victorian Parliament on Thursday, 23 April, and on related topics. For those interested in attending the webinar, the details are: Coronavirus and Victorian retail and commercial tenancies   This […]

Bills have been tabled before the Western Australian Parliament to enact the WA State Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to commercial tenancies. The Bills are available here: https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/Bills.nsf/ED7097E743C7BC2D4825854C00102B97/$File/186-1.pdf https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/Bills.nsf/7CDCFDA8EE2BA09C4825854C00139362/$File/188-1.pdf  Highlights of the WA Bills are: It applies to small commercial tenants, which is defined by reference to other WA legislation.  It is […]

There has been a lot of press over the last 24 hours about the Victorian Government’s new measures for landlords and tenants. There were two relevant press releases yesterday: one announcing the emergency sitting of Victorian Parliament, available here: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/emergency-sitting-of-the-victorian-parliament-next-week/ the second announcing the State government stimulus to support landlords and tenants, available here: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/supporting-tenants-and-landlords-through-coronavirus/ […]

A UK colleague has suggested another line of argument for the COVID-19 issue that has not received a lot of airtime in Australia – at least, not that I have seen, stuck here in my living room! The author argues that there may be a judge or two willing, when faced with the right lease […]

The Victorian Premier announced today that Parliament is sitting on Thursday, 23 April 2020 to debate ‘an ominbus of bills’. Among those bills is expected to be a bill giving effect to the National Cabinet Mandatory Code of Conduct for landlords and tenants that was discussed in an earlier post. As usual, I will keep my […]

I have just heard that VCAT is adjourning all face-to-face hearings up to and including 15 May 2020. The previous position was that face-to-fact hearings up to 17 April 2020 were adjourned. The notice I received applied to the Building and Property List.  If you have matters in other lists of the Tribunal, you should […]

The Prime Minister’s press release from today is available here: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/update-coronavirus-measures-070420 The paragraphs relevant to commercial tenants are as follows: The National Cabinet agreed that states and territories would implement the attached mandatory Code of Conduct (the Code), including via legislation or regulation as appropriate, to implement the principles agreed on Friday 3 April. The […]

The Prime Minister has given us more details of the model for commercial landlords and tenants. In summary: There is to be a mandatory code to be legislated state-by-state. The code will apply where the landlord or the tenant is eligible for JobKeeper (ie in financial distress) and has a turnover of $50M or less. […]