Australian privacy law, AI compliance, Fair Work considerations, and legal obligations for small business owners.
Slater & Gordon just launched a free AI legal tool called Lawra. Forty thousand Australians used it in the pilot phase. If you run a small business, the pitch is hard to ignore, free, plain-language legal clarity, available right now. So is it worth your time? Mostly yes, but with a catch you should know…
This post is general information only and not legal advice. For your specific situation, speak to a qualified Australian lawyer. Someone has cloned your voice. They’ve called your office manager, said there’s an urgent supplier payment, and transferred $40,000 before anyone thought to check. You find out two hours later. The money is gone. This…
If your business uses AI to help decide who gets approved for credit, who gets hired, what price someone is quoted, or whether a claim is paid, you have a disclosure obligation coming. It takes effect on 10 December 2026. Most small business owners have no idea. This is separate from the broader Privacy Act…
ChatGPT can produce a five-page service agreement in about thirty seconds. Claude can turn a rough description into a polished NDA before your coffee is ready. For small business owners who’ve spent thousands on legal fees over the years, that’s an appealing offer. But there’s a question worth asking before you paste that output into…
“AI is not a secure place to upload your personal data.” That line comes from coverage of a survey that hit the accounting industry hard earlier this year, and it only scratches the surface of the problem. A Dext survey of 500 Australian accountants, reported by Accounting Times in June 2026, found that 63% know…
More than 65 per cent of retirees are already asking AI tools retirement questions. Some are running their own super calculations through ChatGPT. Financial author Bec Wilson flagged this in The Age this week, and her warning is worth reading. But it’s aimed at employees. If you own a small business, the situation is messier….
10 December 2026. That date is already legislated. From that day, any Australian business that uses software to make decisions about people (credit checks, job screening, pricing, service access) has new legal obligations under the Privacy Act 1988. The rules are in the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024, which received Royal Assent in…
In October 2024, Australia’s privacy regulator published guidance that affects almost every small business using AI tools. Most small business owners have never heard of it. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released two sets of guidance documents covering how existing Australian Privacy Principles apply when businesses develop or use AI. If you’re…
Your employment contracts might be quietly setting you up for a very expensive problem. Not because you meant to break the law, but because the law changed and nobody told you. The Fair Work Act has been through significant changes since 2022. Fixed-term contract rules tightened in December 2023. A new casual employee test took…