If it can happen to a future queen, it can happen to you. Maybe it already has.
- Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Canberra
There are many good proposals in Dreyfus’s reform paper. But they risk being lost once again among the voices of those whose interests are served by maintaining the status quo.
This isn’t the first time Australians’ Medicare numbers have been exposed.
An archaic law means many people with disability are not allowed to vote. Other countries are changing their rules and so should Australia.
Pathology companies have recorded massive profits from COVID testing, with each PCR test attracting a Medicare rebate of A$85.
The new bill would open the gates for your data to freely exchange hands between any ‘accredited’ agency. The proposal is more arrogant than it is effective.
It’s not clear how individuals are being targeted. And while they’re mostly high-profile people, that doesn’t mean there’s no lesson for the average person to take away.
The new Community Pharmacy Agreement will make it easier for Australia’s pharmacists to spend time providing expert health advice to customers rather than focusing on retail revenues.
The Minister for Government Services has announced a two-year roadmap to supposedly propel e-government. But the plans, part of a larger strategy, are considerably lacking substance.
Only pharmacists can own a pharmacy and you can’t set one up within 1.5km of an existing one. But calls to loosen these rules could give health companies a green light to set up more chemist chains.
The government has breached the public’s trust and its own privacy policy by using Medicare data about Australians’ prescribing habits to recruit participants for a study.
The proposed Australian ban of some types of breast implants is too little, too late. It also reveals regulatory failures that need to be fixed if Australian consumers are to be protected.
Some family members of aged care residents have resorted to hidden cameras to detect abuse and protect loved ones. But it’s legally murky and erodes the privacy of the resident, staff and visitors.
Unless you take action to remove yourself before October 15, the federal government will make a digital copy of your medical record, store it centrally, and give numerous people access to it.
It is vital for governments and citizens to discuss how much privacy should be sacrificed when issues of national security arise.
A review into pharmacy practices last year recommended pharmacies stop selling ineffective remedies such as homeopathy. The government didn’t support the recommendation.
The ban on Queensland Members of Parliament using encrypted messaging apps for government business should be accompanied by a willingness to strengthen official accountability across the board.
Even though Australia sides with the US on more areas of policy, it should be careful about being dragged into the back-and-forth of sanctions between the US and China.
A man who had the chip of a transport card inserted in his hand has had his card cancelled. He plans to take legal action against Transport for NSW, but does he have a case?
There is currently a weak process of checking claims made in advertisements for medicines, to ensure they don’t mislead or deceive consumers -this could be abandoned if a bill passes parliament.
Amazon this week purchased the global rights to J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings to turn it into a television series. What are the implications for Australia’s content and its global reach?
The NSW bill leaves significant questions unanswered, disquieting ethicists, lawyers and doctors.
The COAG agreement to share our biometric data - including some photo ID - is an erosion of our privacy and will give people a false sense of comfort.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration must learn to deal with software rather than simply bits of metal and plastic.
Privacy laws in Australia need to be reformed, and fast, to stop governments bullying people through publication of personal information.
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