A retired NT judge tried to have historical sexual harassment allegations thrown out, arguing his former associate's 2013 complaint was past the 12-month limit. Federal Court judge Mark Moshinsky ruled in favour of an NT Anti-Discrimination Commission decision to allow the complaint to continue, agreeing that before Susan Kiefel's 2020 Heydon apology, there was no avenue to hold judges accountable: AFR

⚖️ Insolvency/Disputes: The NSW Court of Appeal has confirmed that disputes over a Deed of Company Arrangement can't be sent to arbitration, even under a broad clause. In Clough v Elecnor, a joint venture deed had a broad Singapore-seated ICC arbitration clause. After Clough entered a DOCA, Elecnor tried to compulsorily acquire Clough's interest for $1, and Clough cross-claimed for $55m. The Court held that questions about the DOCA's effect on creditors' rights fall outside s 7(2) of the International Arbitration Act, since a DOCA binds creditors by statute, not contract. Clough's private contribution claim, by contrast, was properly arbitrable: Corrs Chambers Westgarth

⚖️ Employment: Training repayment clauses might not be as bulletproof as employers think. In Geeks Ltd v Watts [2026] EWCA Civ 889, a junior tech worker was slugged with an £8,108 repayment bill after quitting for a better paid role. The UK Court of Appeal sided with him, finding the clawback amounted to a restraint of trade. It applied no matter why he left, would've reduced his already modest pay to near nothing, and also clawed back time he'd spent doing real, productive work rather than actual training. Australian restraint of trade law shares common roots with the UK's, and given that courts here often draw on UK authorities, a similar clause could face the same fate: Kingston Reid

⚖️ Corporate: ASIC has locked in the technical changes for its enhanced beneficial ownership reforms, after consulting on Consultation Paper 387. Three old forms, 603, 604 and 605, are being replaced by a single new Substantial Holding Notice. ASIC has also simplified how deemed economic interests and short positions are calculated, and updated RG 5, RG 9 and RG 222 to match. The new disclosure obligations kick in for listed entities from 4 December 2026, but there's a transition window until 4 June 2027 to switch over to the new forms: ASIC

After years of everyone complaining about crazy house prices, it turns out voters don't actually love falling house prices as much as Albo hoped. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. National home values just had their worst month since 2022, down 0.7% in July to $928,421, with Sydney and Melbourne off 5.5% from their March peak. Jim Chalmers' negative gearing and CGT overhaul is getting blamed alongside rate rises: AFR

A sealed court document shows TikTok deliberately kept a safety update from 15 million US users in 2021 to test its effect on engagement. Stuck in the control group, a 16-year-old’s account was fed thousands of suicide related videos before he took his own life. TikTok later told Congress it didn't believe the platform caused suicides. Now it's central evidence in the "dangerous by design" lawsuits working through US courts: Bloomberg

💰 Aware Super and Prime Super have signed a non-binding MOU to explore a merger via Successor Fund Transfer, targeting completion by the end of 2027. If it goes ahead, the combined fund would manage roughly $254bn and cover 1.4 million-plus members: Capital Brief

✈️ Qantas is offloading its 33.3% stake in Jetstar Japan to the Development Bank of Japan. The share buyback is worth JPY8.2bn ($74m), and is expected to deliver Qantas a $115m earnings gain, mostly in FY27: Capital Brief

⛏️ Rio Tinto is close to launching the sale of $2bn-$3bn worth of infrastructure assets across Canada and the Pilbara. Blackstone, Apollo, Stonepeak and KKR are shaping up as potential buyers: The Australian