Our latest insights

We recently sat down with NSW Club leaders to discuss Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations on the Club industry in the short to medium term. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has now released their standard on Sustainability, and Treasury has sent a draft policy on how the standards will be adopted in Australia. Although there is no set guidance at this stage, it is most likely Clubs will need to adopt this standard in FY26.

With the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2018, Australia became a leading jurisdiction in combating Modern Slavery, which is defined as the exploitation of workers where offenders use coercion, threats or deception to exploit employees, and undermine their freedom. The Act made provisions for a statutory review of the act, which commenced in 2022 and concluded with the release of the Report of the statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) by the Attorney General's Department on 25 May 2023.

Australia has commenced its implementation of Tranche 2 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) reforms, presenting an opportunity to shape the scope and nature of obligations for your industry.

The Payment Times Reporting (PTR) Scheme was introduced on 1 January 2021, requiring large businesses to report on the payment terms, and invoice payment times for their small business suppliers.

In June 2018, the NSW Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW Act) was passed – just ahead of the national approach to modern slavery. The Commonwealth’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) (the Commonwealth Act) was introduced to the Commonwealth Parliament a few weeks after New South Wales.

The Payment Times Reporting Scheme (PTRS) commenced on 1 January 2021, requiring organisations with an annual income over $100 million to report on the time it takes them to pay small business suppliers. The purpose of this scheme is to increase transparency around the payment terms offered by large businesses to small business suppliers, thereby creating incentives to improve payment times and practices.

The first Payment Times Reporting Register was published on 30 November 2021, and covered the reporting period 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021.

Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing changes, informally known as “Tranche 1.5”, relate to those entities captured by Tranche 1, including providers of financial, bullion, and gaming/gambling services.

As of 1 July 2021 it is now a criminal offence for Victorian employers to deliberately underpay employees or dishonestly withhold their entitlements.

While Modern Slavery Statement reporting periods have gone back to their normal schedule, now is a timely reminder to collate your Modern Slavery Statements and submit in time with the regular deadlines.

The Modern Slavery Act reporting deadline has been extended to 31 March 2021.

With all that had been going on as 2020 closed out, it would have been easy to miss the introduction of a new reporting obligation placed on certain entities from 2021 forward.