WA's gas gamble

G’day.

Welcome to Point Blank.

Today’s brief:

• WA’s environmental department has approved Woodside’s North West Shelf Project.

• HSF partner Damion Hazard gets the boot over “deeply offensive” tweet.

• Labor will force Big Tech to negotiate with Aussie journalists or face penalties.

We’ve got two Fridays left until Christmas. Here’s the latest to close out your week. 👇

 💼 Practice Points

• In a landmark decision for workers' rights, the High Court found that unfairly sacked workers can now claim damages for psychiatric injury. The case involved an employer breaching an employment contract through a "disgraceful" termination process, which led to the employee suffering mental harm, earning them $1.4m in damages. The decision overturns precedent set by a 1909 English case, which formed the basis for common law courts to deny workers the right to compensation for psychiatric injury caused by a breach of contract. 

• The legal services boards in the 3 Uniform Law jurisdictions—NSW, Victoria, and WA—have dropped a joint statement on how lawyers should handle AI in practice. The statement reminds lawyers that they must maintain their ethical standards and professional obligations under the Uniform Law, which means maintaining client confidentiality, not using AI as a substitute for legal knowledge, and ensuring AI doesn't run up costs.

• A NSW Supreme Court rejected an argument that an indemnity deed did not require reasonableness. The relevant clause required Capital Holdings to advance “reasonable costs” upon request. Prout claimed that this clause required Holdings to advance all costs upon request, regardless of reasonableness. The court was not about that argument, and so dismissed the summons with costs ordered against Prout.

🏘️ Word on the Street 

• Damien Hazard’s time at HSF is up after the execs at HSF voted to remove him as partner. Hazard has officially been served with a notice to depart from the partnership.

• After four decades at the firm, Landers & Rogers chief executive partner Genevieve Collins steps down.

• Tassie lawyers say the Attorney General snubbed a female candidate for a less experienced judge for the position of Chief Justice no less. That candidate was Justice Helen Wood, who the Tasmanian Women Lawyers Associations claims is “Tasmania’s most highly respected and experienced judicial officer”. Chris Shanahan SC took was appointed the top spot.

📢 Talking Points

• The Labor government is forcing Big Tech to the table to negotiate pay deals for Aussie journalists. If they fail to enter into agreements with Australian media companies, the government will impose penalties or “taxes” on them, higher than what they would have paid journalists.

• Facilities service companies Spotless and Ventia, along with four of their executives, have been taken to court over a price-fixing cartel. The ACCC alleges that, on three separate occasions, the companies colluded to fix the price of their defence contracts, attempting to rack up additional compensation from Defence.

• Rupert Murdoch’s failed attempt to hand over the reins to his son Lachlan has sparked fresh speculation among bankers and analysts: could Murdoch sell off his empire before he’s gone, rather than leave it to his feuding kids? Lachlan might try to raise the cash to buy out his three siblings, but if that fails, the alternative could be a fire sale of assets. Rich Greenfield, analyst at LightShed has thrown out the possibility of Elon Musk snapping up Fox News.

• The British government has banned the use of puberty blockers for children. Meanwhile, gender clinics in Australian cities have been using these blockers as routine treatment. The big question now: will Australia follow the UK’s lead?

🏦 The Treasury

• Unemployment fell to 3.9% in November, driven by full-time jobs. The fall means investors are less optimistic about a February rate cut.

🤝 Deal Room

• Data centre giant DigiCo Infrastructure REIT debuts on the ASX after raising a massive A$2bn in Australia’s largest IPO since 2017. With a 13-property portfolio spanning Australia and North America, DigiCo is set to make waves in the digital infrastructure space.

• Boston-based private equity giant Bain Capital is in the advanced stages of a $2bn buyout bid for the wealth manager, Insignia Financial. Insignia, while often described as "undervalued", was the best-performing stock on the S&P/ASX 200 yesterday, soaring 11.1%, bringing it to a 45.3% gain since January. Insignia announced it received an NBIO for $4 cash per share this morning.

• Grant Thornton’s latest report on M&A activity in agribusiness, food, and beverage reveals that Australia has ranked 6^th globally by deal volume, with 49 deals recorded in the 18 months ending June 2024—a sharp decline from 67 deals in the previous period. Packaged foods are still the dominant force, making up 53% of Australian transactions. The biggest deal of the period? The multi-billion-dollar takeover of Costa Group, a major grower of tomatoes, citrus and avocadoes.

• Shareholder activism is on the rise in Japan, sparking a fresh wave of management buyouts. Recently, the Ito family, who built 7-Eleven’s parent company, made a US$58bn offer to take the business private, fending off a rival bid from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard. With the Japanese government pushing for improved corporate governance, it looks like we’ll be seeing more local companies heading in the direction of private ownership.

• Rothschild & Co says the new merger approval regime will bring forward deal announcements in 2025.

🏗 Sector Specific

Diggers

• Woodside has scored approval from WA’s environmental department to extend its North West Shelf Project, locking in the future of its LNG processing plant. The nod also brings the $30bn Browse development—Australia’s most contentious gas project—closer to reality.

• AustralianSuper, holding a hefty 32% stake in Syrah Resources, says it’s in “regular discussions” with the miner after force majeure was declared at its Balama graphite mine in Mozambique.

• Rio Tinto is dropping $2.5bn into a lithium mine in Argentina, marking a big win for President Javier Milei's push to lure foreign investment with deregulation. Rio CEO Jakob Stausholm praised Milei’s new program—tax, currency, and trade perks locked in for 30 years—as “intelligent”. The investment bucks the lithium price slump, with Rio doubling down on lithium for the future.

• Iluka Resources chairman Rob Cole is stepping down from the role owing to health issues.

• In 2020, Fortescue’s executive team had 11 members—today, just one remains. The AFR’s 9,000-word exposé reveals why:

  • It starts with Fortescue’s 2020 global tour, where staff were instructed to cover up Twiggy’s COVID-19 positive test.

  • By the end of the tour, Forrest had gone all-in on green hydrogen, but the company was spinning out of control. Fortescue bought a second plane, obsessed with meeting Putin, and recruited heavily from the security and defence sectors to surround himself with "yes men".

  • On top of that, Forrest threatened legal action against employees over IP theft. One was so rattled, they rearranged their finances to protect their assets.

  Fast-forward this year and Forrest has been forced to scale back its hydrogen dream, announcing 700 job cuts, a far cry from its earlier predictions that Fortescue could rival US$2.7 trillion Saudi Aramco. Staff say Forrest’s erratic, impulsive leadership style is to blame for the costly backdown.

Fin

• Bit Trade, the Australian operator of crypto exchange Kraken, has been slapped with an $8m penalty after failing to meet design and distribution obligations under the Corps Act. ASIC proved that Bit Trade offered a margin trading product to Aussie customers without the required target market determination—with no determination, there were no clear conditions on how the product could be distributed, leaving the door open for improper distribution.

• AMP has invested $27m in bitcoin, being the first major super fund to invest in crypto, which has previously been shunned by the super sector for its volatility. 

Tech & Media

• Speaking of Bitcoin, Amazon faces pressure to make a Bitcoin bet. A group of Amazon shareholders, led by the National Center for Public Policy Research, wants the tech giant to allocate 5% of its holdings to Bitcoin. The bold proposal, up for review ahead of Amazon’s 2025 AGM, argues that Bitcoin’s outperformance makes it a smarter play than corporate bonds.

Retail & Real Estate

• US property giant Hines is eyeing 100 Mount Street for $600m, as Dexus pivots to the Sydney CBD core. The 35-storey tower, completed in 2019, is set to sell at a 25% markdown from its $800m peak valuation—proof of just how much the office market has tanked. With vacancies hitting 23.5%, Dexus is offloading $2bn in assets over three years. But Hines is betting on a bounce-back.

• Two law firms, originally set to run separate class actions against Coles and Woolies over illusory discounts, are now joining forces.

• GPT Group will acquire a 50 per cent stake in assets owned by the Perron Group for $482m, in a new retail partnership between the firms. The assets are Perron’s Cockburn Gateway and Belmont Forum shopping centres.

PS.