The BLS Report Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Business Law Section
BLS Report, a series of podcasts available created by the Business Law Section, covering topics of interest arising in our fields or practice. This series is in commemoration of the late Professor Robert (‘Bob’) Baxt.
Bob Baxt was the father of the BLS. In 1980, he was one of the signatories to the submission to the Law Council to establish the BLS and played a key role in its initial organisation and subsequent development.
He was BLS chair from 2001 to 2003, a member of our executive for more than 30 years right up until his passing in March 2018, and whose presence we still feel at our executive meetings as he was a mentor to so many of us. Bob in fact served on three BLS committees, chairing two of them.
He practiced and published extensively in the fields of trade practices, corporate law and taxation law, and had a longstanding commitment to legal education. He was Dean of Law at Monash University from 1980 to 1988, and later a professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne, Chairman of the Law Committee of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the founder and general editor of the Australian Business Law Review and the Company and Securities Law Journal.
In this episode, we explore the key tax measures announced in the May 2026 budget and what they mean for commercial lawyers and their clients. Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves are joined by experts Toby Eggleston and Peter Dunn to unpack the technical changes and their practical implications.The discussion considers the impact on investment decisions, private capital markets and high‑growth businesses, as well as the polic process that shaped the reforms.
The relationship between regulation and innovation has always been complicated. Regulation that assumes one way of doing things can stifle innovation; conversely regulation struggles to keep up with rapid technological change. In this episode, Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves unpack that relationship with the 2026 Trinity College visiting Gourlay Professor in business ethics, Professor Gerry George from the International Medical University in Malaysia and the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative at Georgetown University in the USA.
In this episode, BLS Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves go through the last-minute revisions to Australia’s new merger control regime with competition law expert Caroline Coops from Mallesons, including when deals involving shares or assets need to be notified to the ACCC.
Everyone knows that structural reform of Australia’s corporate regulation is needed, but where do we start? In this episode, BLS Chair Pamela Hanrahan and BLS Executive member John Keeves are in conversation with Professor Jason Harris from Sydney Law School and Natasha McHattan from nlmlegal about the recent work of the Productivity Commission on regulatory reform and the CLRA campaign by industry bodies, professional associations and academics for a standing expert body to get modernisation moving.
Wood Mallesons and Simon Muys from Gilbert + Tobin, to explore Australia’s new merger regime and what it means for businesses and practitioners.Part 2Part 2 focuses on the practical implications, covering pre-notification strategies, ACCC review processes and timeframes, Tribunal review, remedies, FIRB interaction, due diligence considerations and more.
Wood Mallesons and Simon Muys from Gilbert + Tobin, to explore Australia’s new merger regime and what it means for businesses and practitioners.Part 1Part 1 examines the foundations of the regime, including key definitions, notification thresholds, targeted industries, filing fees and the requirements of the new notification forms.
Australia’s financial consumer law was recently described by the Australian Law Reform Commission as “a tangled mess” and a “confusing maze” that is “no longer fit for purpose”. A new approach is needed. In this episode, BLS Chair Dr Pamela Hanrahan and Executive member John Keeves talk to Professor Lauren Willis, Centennial Chair of Consumer Law at Loyola Law School in California and a world-renowned expert on consumer regulation, about an alternative performance-based approach to law design.
Recorded 6 March 2025In this episode, BLS Chair Dr Pamela Hanrahan and Executive member John Keeves meet two people at the centre of Australia’s coordinated response to cyber threat. Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness CSC, the National Cyber Security Coordinator and Hamish Hansford, the Deputy Secretary for Cyber & Infrastructure Security in the Department of Home Affairs discuss the national strategy for cyber resilience and the Cyber Security Act 2024 (Cth).
In this special episode, BLS Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves meet Mette Morsing, Professor of Business Sustainability and Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. Professor Morsing is in Australia as the 2024 Gourlay Visting Professor of ethics in business and talks about how the disciplines of law and management work together in responding to climate change.
With the Senate Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence due to report in September, BLS Chair Professor Pamela Hanrahan and BLS Executive member John Keeves discuss recent developments and likely futures in AI regulation with Peter Leonard, Principal of Data Synergies Pty Ltd and UNSW Business School Professor of Practice.
The Australian Law Reform Commission was charged in 2020 with untangling the mess that is Australia’s financial services law, without altering the policy settings. In this episode, BLS Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves discuss the Final Report with Christopher Ash and Ellie Filkin from the ALRC to unpack the Report’s 58 recommendations. We explore what needs to change in our approach to legislating for business regulation in future, to avoid unnecessary complexity and support the rule of law.
In this episode, Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves discuss the climate disclosure bill introduced into Parliament in March with Tim Stutt, Australian head of ESG at Herbert Smith Freehills and Ben Fleming from Sullivan and Cromwell. The discussion shows how far we still are from achieving a global consensus on this important reform.
In this episode, Olga Ganopolsky of the BLS Privacy Committee and Michael Rivette of the Victorian Bar join BLS Executive Members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves to discuss current issues in privacy, covering how Australia shapes up internationally, rule of law concerns and privacy class actions.
The fourteenth edition of the BLS Report explores the challenge of attributing fault to large corporations and other entities where power and decision-making are diffused.BLS Executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves are joined by Professor Elise Bant FAAL from the University of Western Australia, to discuss her new edited book exploring the conceptions and conditions of corporate blameworthiness in law. We unpack the theory of “systems intentionality” as a basis for determining the mindset of a corporation.
The thirteenth edition of the BLS Report explores the broader context of the PJC’s current review of aspects of Australia’s insolvency regimes, and the possibilities for change. BLS Executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves are joined by two guests whom are perfectly positioned to provide insight into this topic, Chair of the BLS’ Insolvency & Restructuring committee Chris Pearce and committee member Dr Jason Harris, Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Sydney.
In the final episode for 2022, BLS Executive members John Keeves and Pamela Hanrahan chat with ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court about ASIC’s enforcement approach. The conversation covers ASIC’s use of court proceedings and ‘why not litigate’, the Star proceedings and ongoing enforcement actions on DDO, and the proposed unfair conduct laws.
BLS Executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves with fellow Executive member Clint Harding of Arnold Bloch Leibler discuss the hot topic of Legal Professional Privilege, including new protocols issues by the ATO.
In the tenth episode of the BLS Report, Professor Jeremy Moon, Chair of Sustainability Governance at Copenhagen Business School, and Mr Tim Bednall of King & Wood Mallesons, discuss the positive and negative influence of corporations in setting the rules of the game for corporate behaviour.
In the first episode of the BLS Report for 2022, Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves speak to Justice Sarah Derrington, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, about the ALRC’s reference on Corporations and Financial Services Laws.
Just in the last months of 2021 the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre delivered its final report on digital assets, one of Australia’s big 4 banks announced that they would add Crypto currencies to their banking app, and ASIC released guidance on “crypto-asset related investment products. It is safe to say the digital world is rapidly expanding and we need to jump aboard this fast moving train. To assist our listeners navigate through the digital maze, BLS Executive members John Keeves and Professor Pamela Hanrahan are joined by three leading lawyers in this field to dive further into the digital labyrinth. Hannah Glass, a senior associate in King & Wood Mallesons’ leading financial markets and systems team, Susannah Wilkinson, Co-Digital Law Head at HSF and new BLS Chairman Philip Argy who is a long-serving BLS Digital Commerce Committee Member.
This latest episode is about cyber-security and the Critical Infrastructure Bill, legislation that is currently before the Federal Parliament. The Bill will impose a new and extensive set of cyber-security requirements for what is to be regarded as “critical infrastructure” – and it covers a number of sectors beyond what would be typically thought of as infrastructure in ordinary language, including food and grocery, health and financial services.
This latest episode explores Environmental, Social and Governance factors (ESG's), how they affect investment decisions and how ESG factors are becoming increasingly important in M&A and investment deals in Australia and overseas.
BLS Executive members John Keeves & Professor Pamela Hanrahan are joined in discussion by fellow BLS Executive member and one of Australia’s leading corporate M&A lawyers, Rebecca Maslen-Stannage, Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, along with Brad Lynch, a Partner with Advent Partners, one of Australia’s longest standing investment managers.
The first episode for 2021 kicks off with a discussion of the recent, and very significant, reforms to Australia’s foreign investment review framework, that came into effect on 1 January this year.
Our BLS Executive Members Prof Pamela Hanrahan and Mr John Keeves are joined by two of Australia’s pre-eminent FIRB lawyers, the BLS’ Foreign Investment Committee Chair Mr Malcolm Brennan, Partner at King & Wood Mallesons and Deputy Chair Ms Wendy Rae, Partner at Allens.
BLS executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves, discuss corporate accountability and whether there has been a shift in focus over recent years.
As the recession bites, all BLS members will need to be across emerging issues in insolvency law. Beginning with a quick refresher on the 2018 reforms, BLS Report Episode 2 provides a clear analysis of the temporary relief measures for insolvent entities and their directors adopted by Government in response to the pandemic. This lively conversation between BLS Insolvency and Restructuring Committee chair Scott Butler and BLS Executive member Pamela Hanrahan focuses on the insolvency and corporate law issues that will matter most in 2020 for business lawyers and their clients.
The fourth and final episode for 2020, BLS committee members Kirsten Webb, a partner at Clayton Utz and BLS working group member Dr Rob Nicholls, an Associate Professor in the UNSW Business School join Executive member Professor Pamela Hanrahan in a discussion about the current issues of competition in the world of digital platforms and what actions regulators are taking both in Australia and internationally to manage these issues.