The Aged Care Amendment (Movement of Provisionally Allocated Places) Bill 2019 (Bill) was introduced into the House of Representatives on 24 July 2019. The Bill proposes to amend the Aged Care Act 1997 (Act) to enable the Secretary of the Department of Health (or...
legislation
Move to mandate staffing ratios
The Aged Care Amendment (Ratio of Skilled Staff to Care Recipients) Bill 2017 is seeking “to enhance the level of care provided by aged care facilities nation-wide” according to Senator Derryn Hinch’s Second Reading Speech. The Bill proposes that a minimum adequate...
Consumer Protection announces review of retirement village contracts
Acting Commissioner for Consumer Protection David Hillyard advised that the investigation will examine various contracts offered by retirement village operators to see if they breach the "unfair contract terms" provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). One...
Increase to Specified Amounts under the Civil Liability Act 2002
From 1 July 2017 there is an increase in the Specified Amounts set out in s.10 and s.13 of the Civil Liability Act 2002 as follows: Amount A: $21,000 Amount C: $62,500 Amount B: $7,000
New Privacy Act Data Breach Obligations Update
Eligible Data Breaches The Act sets up a scheme for notification of ‘eligible data breaches’. An eligible data breach happens if: there is unauthorised access to, unauthorised disclosure of, or loss of, personal information held by an entity; and the access,...
New WA Medicine and Poisons Regulations
A key aim of the regulations is to control the potential for the misuse of hard drugs by implementing a system to identify and regulate ‘doctor shopping’. Health Minister John Day says the legislation “establishes the legal framework for the transfer of information...
Fake Nurse convicted and ordered to pay over $40,000
Two separate actions were brought against Nicholas Crawford by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, one in Queensland and one in Western Australia in relation to 14 offences arising from his falsely claiming to be a registered health professional. Mr Crawford...
State Administrative Tribunal Annual Report 2015-2016
Vocational Regulation matters, which include disciplinary and professional regulation of health practitioners, lawyers, security agents and real estate and settlement agents, comprised only 3% of matters in the Tribunal for 2015/16 period, with 80% of those matters...
Are you ready for the new business-to-business unfair contract term laws?
ACCC Deputy Chair Dr Michael Schaper has explained that ”the new law will apply when a term in a small business standard form contract: causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations isn’t reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests...
David Tune to Lead Major Review of Aged Care Reforms
Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt AM, MP announced the appointment of David Tune AO PSM to lead the Aged Care Legislated Review. The changes announced to aged care in 2012 included a comprehensive review of the aged care sector in 2016-17. This...