The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to increase the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 3.85 per cent. It also increased the rate paid on Exchange Settlement balances by 25 basis points to 3.75 per cent. Inflation in Australia has passed its peak, but at 7 per cent is still too high and it will be some time yet before it is back in the target range. Given the importance of returning inflation to target within a reasonable timeframe, the Board judged that a further increase in interest rates was warranted today.

The Premier, Chris Minns has announced his government’s first full Ministry. The Minns Ministry is a reduced Cabinet of 22 Ministers, but for the first time in New South Wales history, will be 50 per cent women (excluding the Premier). For the first time in New South Wales history, a woman will hold the position of Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council. For the first time in New South Wales history, a woman will hold the portfolio of Energy (Sharpe), Police (Catley), Regional NSW (Moriarty), Finance (Houssos) and Regional Transport (Aitchison). For the first time in New South Wales history, an Australian Minister was sworn in on the Bhagavad Gita (Mookhey), and a NSW Minister will be sworn in on the Quran (Dib).

The Victorian Government has confirmed the framework for future enterprise agreements with the state’s public sector workers, under an updated wages policy. Minister for Industrial Relations Tim Pallas today released details of the new Victorian Public Sector Wages Policy, which increases the wages component from the current 1.5 per cent per annum to a funded annual increase of 3 per cent.

Thomson Geer's Corporate team has been strengthened with mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets specialist David Church joining as a Partner in the Perth office.

Welcome to the latest issue of our South Australian Public Sector Newsletter. TikTok has been banned from South Australian Government devices due to the significant security and privacy risks posed by the application. Agencies must remove and prevent the installation of TikTok on government issued devices, and must also formally assess the risk of TikTok on personal devices that access official, sensitive or security classified data.

The importance of selecting appropriately skilled expert witnesses for patent infringement cases was highlighted in a recent Federal Court of Australia decision.

An Australian court's decision to enforce a foreign arbitral award made in China is a reminder for Australian parties who enter into arbitration agreements with foreign parties that there can be serious consequences if they ignore a notice of arbitration (even where that notice and/or consequential arbitral proceedings) are conducted in a foreign language.

Thomson Geer is advising Japanese food and beverages giant Kirin Holdings Company, Limited on its A$1.8 billion proposed acquisition of Australian-listed healthcare company Blackmores Ltd via a scheme of arrangement.