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Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke yesterday announced migration reforms that will expand skilled visa priority processing to the agriculture, resources, and fisheries sectors. The minister also indicated that the construction and teaching sectors will be added for priority processing. Eligible onshore skilled visa applicants in construction and teaching already receive high-priority processing under Ministerial Direction 119, behind defence and law enforcement.

Australia's Parliament has passed significant amendments to the country's merger regime, less than a year after its introduction. The changes address practical concerns around mandatory merger notifications, providing greater flexibility for minority investments, reducing risks from inadvertent notification failures, and allowing extensions for delayed transactions. How will these refinements impact dealmakers navigating Australia's interventionist competition framework?

In Queensland, proving defamation requires establishing that a defendant published defamatory matter identifying the plaintiff to third parties, causing serious reputational harm. However, even when all elements are satisfied, claims may still fail due to procedural requirements, corporate plaintiff restrictions, or available defences under the Defamation Act 2005.