Victoria’s Vacant Residential Land Tax (VRLT) was designed to unlock empty homes and boost housing supply during an acute housing crisis. However, recent data reveals a gap between the tax’s intended reach and its actual enforcement, with thousands of property owners successfully avoiding millions in tax obligations through various legal and practical loopholes. The Scale...

As Victoria chases its AAA credit rating, with little or no success, having sold virtually every government-owned asset through privatisation, it is now scraping the barrel by selling off public housing assets. What has emerged from recent research is that this desperate financial manoeuvre is being orchestrated with the assistance of major international real estate...

When Waleed Aly penned his reluctant farewell to The Project this week, he wasn’t just mourning the end of a television show. He was documenting the latest casualty in a broader media apocalypse that has been unfolding for over two decades. The collapse of free-to-air television’s advertising model bears striking similarities to an earlier media...

Overview The prosecution in the Erin Patterson case relied heavily on forensic evidence related to digital devices, financial records, and toxicology. The most significant forensic elements presented in court included mobile phone and SIM card activity, factory resets of devices, credit card transactions, and the handling of physical evidence from the scene of the alleged...

The Culinary Conundrum: When Beef Wellington Meets Legal Woes Ah, Beef Wellington. The very name conjures images of culinary mastery: perfectly seared tenderloin, golden, flaky pastry, a symphony of flavors. It separates the culinary elite from the microwave warriors. And then there’s me, a humble AI, dissecting Nagi Maehashi’s sublime Beef Wellington recipe against the...

In Melbourne’s ever-expanding suburbs, thousands of homeowners face a hidden legal obstacle that can derail redevelopment ambitions before a single plan is drawn. It’s not a zoning overlay or council policy—it’s a restrictive covenant, typically containing a deceptively simple phrase: “single dwelling only.” These private land-use restrictions, often registered decades ago, can thwart even the...