The Victorian Government and the wine industry are co-designing a new strategy funded by the 2023-2024 State Budget. Over two years, stakeholders can shape the Victorian Wine Strategy through forums and submissions. Agriculture Victoria's engagement paper invites input on industry issues and opportunities until Sept 1, 2024.

Farmland is often the single most valuable asset for a farming family. The farm provides a base from which to operate the farming business and the capital value of the farmland typically increases in value over the long term.

On 15 February 2022, the Victorian State Revenue Office (SRO) published ruling LTA-009 (Draft Ruling) that replaced the previous rulings of LTA-004 and LTA-005.

The consultation process closed for comments and submissions on 15 March 2022. We will provide updates when the SRO releases their final ruling in due course.

In some circumstances farm leases will be outside the scope of The Retail Leases Act (Act) following a determination by the Minister for Small Business, exempting farm leases from the Act, effective from 29 October 2019.

Today the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission handed down its annual wage review decision.

‘Climate-related risks’ have moved from a corporate buzzword to an actionable obligation for company directors, who should consider these risks in the context of their organisation and understand that a failure to act with regards to a climate-related risk can result in a contravention of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)  (Act).

Equity crowd funding has taken some first, tentative practical steps.  The new crowd-sourced funding (CSF) regime that started at the end of October 2017 - designed to reduce costs and red-tape for start-ups and SMEs looking to raise capital from a large number of small investors – is still being tweaked, as proprietary companies were excluded from eligibility.  This will be rectified with a bill currently before the Parliament. 

Harwood Andrews was a gold sponsor of this year’s Mellow in the Yellow fundraising event held on 8 October 2016. One of our senior associates, Euphemie Barr, was on the event committee and helped coordinate various aspects of the event. 

Each year the Fair Work Commission reviews minimum award pay rates for each classification in an award.  The new rates apply from 1 July 2016.

In light of the 2016-2017 Federal Budget handed down on 3 May, participants in the wine industry have expressed significant concerns regarding the Federal Government’s proposal to reform the Wine Equalisation Tax Rebate (WET Rebate) and the related eligibility criteria.

Adley Burstyner and Harwood Andrews have announced they are joining forces to work on a claim against milk processors for the current crisis facing Victorian dairy farmers.

Farmers are relieved by the Federal Government’s decision to bring forward the start date for new farm tax breaks.