Insights

Recently, we published an article outlining the dos and don’ts of COVID-19 vaccine promotion. Our Insight summarises how vaccine providers and other parties can lawfully provide information about and promote COVID-19 vaccines. The promotion of vaccines and health services generally, across a variety of communication mediums, is regulated by advertising laws. Social media in particular, […]

The facts BG, a myotherapist and a ‘general health service provider’ for the purposes of the Health Complaints Act 2016 (Vic) (the Act), engaged in a series of messages with (DB) on Instagram and Snapchat. DB was studying a Diploma of Remedial Massage. It was apparent from BG’s Instagram profile he was a myotherapist. The […]

R v Tavistock, Gender Dysphoria and Children: puberty blockers “interlinked” with cross-sex hormones such that informed consent extends to understanding future physical consequences of treatment; under 16s “highly unlikely” to be Gillick competent. Introduction In R v Tavistock[1], The UK High Court has held that treatment for Gender Dysphoria (“GD“) is contingent on court approval […]

In January last year, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council published a new Ministerial direction with the intention of requiring AHPRA and the National Boards to make public protection the paramount consideration when administering the National Law. Policy Direction 2019-1 seeks to provide clarity on the application of the third guiding principle of […]

In 2016, the Victorian government introduced the Health Complaints Act 2016 (Vic) (the Act) which launched a new framework for managing and resolving complaints regarding all Victorian health service providers. As part of these reforms, the office of the Health Complaints Commissioner (the HCC) was established, replacing the former office of the Health Services Commissioner. […]

Currently, 85% of all Australians have a clear understanding of why they should protect personal information, yet 49% don’t know how to do it. Privacy Awareness Week (PAW 2021) runs from 3-9 May 2021. The theme for PAW2021 is ‘Make privacy a priority’. PAW 2021 is about sharing information and practical tips that empower organisations […]

The roll-out of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has begun. Generally, the advertising of vaccines to consumers is prohibited in Australia, however some exceptions are now in place to support the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines. To explain these exceptions, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has issued a fact sheet which shows how vaccine providers […]

Commercial agreements vary in complexity, the length of time parties are involved in negotiations, and importantly, in the level of formality the parties employ as they ‘thrash out’ the terms. For these reasons, it is sometimes difficult to work out when the negotiations have reached a point where the law would regard the parties as […]

A shareholders’ agreement is a contract between a company’s shareholders (sometimes the company itself is also a party), setting out the rights and obligations of the shareholders in relation to the affairs of the company and how it is to be managed. If the company is the trustee of a unit trust the agreement relates […]

From 1 January 2021, New South Wales Fair Trading is proposing to enforce new disclosure obligations (which were first introduced in July 2020) contained in the Fair Trading Act 1987 (NSW). The new obligations relate to how businesses that supply goods and services in New South Wales to consumers, communicate with customers and how intermediaries […]