All news and articles

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  • Resolving tax disputes is an expensive and time consuming process for businesses. In New Zealand, tax disputes are currently settled exclusively by litigation or outside of court by agreement between the taxpayer and the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) …
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  • The first article in this series discussed the main types of preliminary agreements, including the pros and cons of investing time in signing a preliminary agreement. This second article sets out some drafting tips that will be useful when preparing …
  • Anyone who has worked on the early stages of a commercial deal is likely to have come across a 'preliminary agreement' in one of its many guises. Lawyers use a myriad of names for preliminary agreements, and while the name of the document itself is …
  • The much anticipated Bill amending the Employment Relations Act 2000 (Act) was introduced into Parliament on 26 April 2013. The Bill's machinery implements the Government's changes announced last year but some of it may have more far-reaching …
  • On 22 April 2013 the Minister of Commerce, the Hon Craig Foss, publicly released what are likely to be the final changes to the Financial Markets Conduct Bill (FMC Bill). These are in the form of a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP), which will be tabled …
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  • The Government has signalled that the wave of law reform activity that occurred in 2012 will continue in 2013, and Buddle Findlay will continue to keep market participants abreast of these developments. In this update we summarise the outcome of a …
  • In another significant change to redundancy law, last month the Employment Court ruled that it can scrutinise an employer's decision to make an employee redundant to ascertain whether there were sufficient business reasons for the redundancy …
  • The Minister of Commerce, the Hon Craig Foss, has released what are likely to be the final set of changes to the Financial Markets Conduct Bill before it becomes law …
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  • For many CTOs, CEOs and in-house lawyers, the use of open source software (OSS) in their organisations has long been put in the too‑hard basket. The risks (real or perceived) of inadvertently tainting proprietary code with the fuzzy, permissive terms …
  • In January of this year, Parliament introduced a Bill to update and amend the Construction Contracts Act 2002 (the Act). Among the proposed changes are several that may have a significant impact on the construction industry, though in many ways the …
  • After 15 years of working on its Open Bank Resolution (OBR) Policy, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) finally released its draft policy for consultation entitled "Open Bank Resolution Prepositioning Requirements Policy" on 14 March 2013 …
  • Yesterday the Minister and Associate Minister of Māori Affairs announced five key proposals to unlock the economic potential of Māori land while maintaining the cornerstone principle of Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 (land retention) …
  • Consultation has recently closed on a document by Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation (MBIE) on building seismic performance in New Zealand. The feedback is timed to assist the government's response to the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal …
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  • The Government has signalled that the wave of law reform activity that occurred in 2012 will continue in 2013, and Buddle Findlay will continue to keep market participants abreast of these developments …
  • New Zealand is currently undergoing the most significant review of its health and safety regime for 20 years. New Zealand workplace injury rates are twice as high as rates in Australia and six times higher than those in the UK …