Transport and logistics

Deacons is a leading advisor to the transport sector, having developed a substantial practice in this specific industry. We are aware of the emerging challenges and can identify and advise on the legal risks involved in major transport and infrastructure projects.

We have a depth and breadth of resources across all aspects of the transport industry and advise a number of state government transport agencies and corporations and also some of Australia’s best known transport and logistics companies.

This experience has given us an in-depth understanding of risk allocation in major contracts and key issues affecting the transport sector in areas such as safety, environment, competition law, compliance and government tendering issues. 

Our expertise covers:

• all aspects of contract preparation, negotiation and advice relating to rail operations (above and below track);
• rolling stock procurement; 
• airports;
• infrastructure ;
• rail (freight and passenger including trams);
• road and logistics contracts generally;
• seaports and shipping;
• tollways, freeways and tunnels.

We have also acted in a number of significant sales and purchases in the transport industry in recent times.

The 2005-2006 edition of the Asia Pacific Legal 500 recommended Adrian Ahern, one of our most experienced partners, as a leading advisor to the transport sector.

• Legal update: “World’s First” Carbon Capture and Storage Legislation

  As part of the Commonwealth Government’s efforts to meet the challenge of climate change, it introduced and released the draft Offshore Petroleum Amendments (Greenhouse Gas Storage) Bill 2008.

  23 Jun 08 Jehann Mendis

• Legal update: New .au Domain Name Transfer Policy from 1 June 2008

  In last month’s Legal Update on Upcoming Changes to .au Domain Name Transfer Policy we noted that the Australian domain name administrator (auDA) had approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer on .au domain name licences. auDA has now confirmed that the new policy will take effect on 1 June 2008.

  18 Apr 08 Michael Park

• Legal update: New Guidance Note issued by the Takeovers Panel on equity derivatives

  On 11 April 2008, the Takeovers Panel (Panel) released Guidance Note 20 - Equity Derivatives (Guidance Note) outlining when, and in what circumstances, the use of equity derivatives may constitute unacceptable circumstances and require disclosure to the market.

  17 Apr 08 Robert Sultan, Shane Bilardi , Natalie Trezise

• Legal update: Upcoming changes to .au domain name transfer policy

  The Australian domain name administrator (auDA) recently announced that it has approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer of .au domain names licences. (It is the exclusive licence to use the domain name that is transferred, rather than ownership of the domain name itself.) This announcement follows auDA’s earlier acceptance of the recommendation from the 2007 Names Policy Panel that the current policy be relaxed to allow a registrant to transfer its domain names for any reason.

  27 Mar 08 Michael Park , Ka-Chi Cheung

• Legal update: Market volatility - ASX and ASIC respond

  Sensing a growing controversy, the ASX and ASIC have issued a number of media releases in response to market concerns, reminding market participants of laws designed to protect the integrity of markets. This update discusses the ASX and ASIC statements in light of the current apparent market volatility.

  17 Mar 08 Tim Woodforde

• Legal update: ACCC releases new draft merger guidelines

  The ACCC recently published its 2008 Draft Merger Guidelines for consultation. These guidelines are intended to provide an explanation of the framework the ACCC will apply when considering whether a merger or a proposed merger could substantially lessen competition in a market. Guidelines such as these issued by the ACCC from time to time, provide a useful overview of polices and procedures applied by the ACCC when reviewing proposed mergers.

  4 Mar 08 Jyoti Singh and Chris Mitchell

• Newsletter: EBIT - May 2007

  Welcome to the May issue of EBIT (Emerging Business, Innovation and Tax). EBIT is an informative newsletter to be shared amongst your clients and colleagues. We provide this information to help you keep abreast of changes to legislation and to stay informed of recent cases and other developments. We hope you enjoyed this issue of EBIT and we look forward to bringing you more issues of EBIT in the future.

  24 May 07 Marcus O'Brien, Michael Tooma, Peter Norman , Angela Zhang, April Thomas

• Newsletter: EBIT - March 2007

  Welcome to the March issue of EBIT (Emerging Business, Innovation and Tax). EBIT is an informative newsletter to be shared amongst your clients and colleagues. We provide this information to help you keep abreast of changes to legislation and to stay informed of recent cases and other developments. In this issue we discuss unfair dismissal and permitted termination for a genuine operational reason. We look at copyright protection, and we review the revised exposure draft for the taxation of financial arrangements tax timing rules. We hope you enjoyed this issue of EBIT and we look forward to bringing you more issues of EBIT in the future.

  9 Mar 07 David Coombes, Greg Hipwell, Michael Serong, Gregory Wong , Evan Mentiplay, Annabele Nilsoon

• Newsletter: Enterprise – October 2006

  Welcome to the October issue of Enterprise.

  30 Oct 06 Jason Noakes , Chris Muir, Jenny Thrum, Albert Umansky, George Squier, Phil Copeland, Alan Grinsell-Jones, Julie Tonkies, Jordan Screen, Sam Davis

• Newsletter: EBIT - September 2006

  Welcome to the September issue of EBIT (Emerging Business, Innovation and Tax).

  28 Sep 06 Michael Park, David Wilson , Ka-Chi Cheung, Stephen Clune