Not-For-Profit Newsletter – December 2014
Published on August 12, 2014 by Joshua Dale and Patricia Monemvasitis
Welcome to our December Not-for-profit Newsletter. In this edition we report to you on the following issues:
- The duties and responsibilities of volunteer directors of Not-for-profit organisations under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and where those organisations are also registered charities under the ACNC Act, the 5 Governance Principles applicable to the activities of those volunteer directors as well as some essential best practise initiatives to ensure compliance.
- A recent High Court decision concerning whether a term of “mutual trust and confidence” be implied into employment contracts in Australia.
- A book review of Nuclear Testing – Maralinga: An Exposé by Frank Walker.
We would like to inform you that the Carroll & O’Dea Wills, Estates, Trusts and Superannuation Law Team has recently issued the first edition of the Wills, Estates, Trusts and Superannuation Law Newsletter (link here) which you might be interested in also reading.
We hope you enjoy this edition of our Not-for-profit Newsletter and the first edition of our Wills, Estates, Trusts and Superannuation Law Newsletter.
The Carroll & O’Dea Not-for-profit Law Team
Uncertain Time for Volunteer Directors
In the past, many people, without hesitation, would volunteer to be a director or board member of a not-for-profit organisation, however, we are in uncertain times as recent litigation has caused concern for some volunteer directors and many more are now seeking some form of protection from their not-for-profit organisations for their potential exposure in these roles.
No implied duty of mutual trust and confidence in employment contracts – the High Court of Australia decision in Commonwealth Bank of Australia v Barker [2014] HCA 32.
The High Court of Australia has handed down its decision on 10 September 2014 allowing the appeal from the earlier decision of the Full Federal Court (see Commonwealth Bank of Australia v Barker [2013] FCAFC 83) to confirm that there is no common law implied duty of mutual trust and confidence in Australian employment contracts.
Nuclear Testing – Maralinga: An Exposé by Frank Walker*
Review by Joshua Dale, Associate, Carroll and O’Dea Lawyers
It has been more than 50 years since the Australian Government allowed British nuclear testing to be carried out at Maralinga in South Australia, only around 800 kilometres north of Adelaide.
In Maralinga, Frank Walker pieces together Australia’s past and the alleged failures of successive and current governments in an exposé that re-tells a series of events that led to the then Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies approving over 500 nuclear tests to be performed on Australian soil in the 1950s and 1960s. See also the work of Wayne Reynolds in “Australia’s bid for an atomic bomb” which tells of a long term plan by prior governments to establish an Australian nuclear program.
The nuclear tests were overseen by approximately 8,000 servicemen, from the Defence Force and other government personnel. It is estimated that a further 7,000 civilians including indigenous inhabitants were potentially exposed to ionised radiation during the tests.
Seven major tests took place in total, at both Maralinga and Emu Field in South Australia, and the Montebello Islands off the coast of Western Australia. The major tests had yields ranging between 1 and 27 kilotons. To put that in perspective, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are said to have ranged only between 12 and 15 kilotons. In addition to the seven major tests, there were over 500 minor tests performed at all sites.
Walker compiles his exposé from a combination of previously secret files and interviews he has conducted with some of the survivors. He tells the story of what he views as a calculated evil by the British and Australian governments in using Australian personnel as human guinea pigs. From what he has uncovered, Walker is outraged by the events of the 1950s and ‘60s, the outcome of legal proceedings, and the consequences that continue to reverberate on the Australian political and social psyche today.
