In the recent case of McKenna v Hunter & New England Local Health District; Simon v Hunter & New England Local Health District [2013] NSWCA 476, the New South Wales Court of Appeal held that a hospital and the health district was liable to the family members of a man who was murdered by one of its patients.

Mr Pettigrove suffered from a lengthy history of mental illness including depression, psychosis and chronic paranoid schizophrenia. In the early hours of 20 July 2004, Mr Pettigrove’s friend, Mr Rose, became concerned about his mental state and arranged for him to be taken by ambulance to Manning Base Hospital (the Hospital) in New South Wales. The principal cause of Mr Rose’s concern was that his friend was experiencing what he described to be “physical jerks”.

Australian privacy rights are regulated by Commonwealth State and Territory legislation and the laws protecting confidential information under the common law. Australian privacy laws govern the collection, use and disclosure of “personal information”.

The new Franchising Code changes appear to have hit a Constitutional bump in the road.  Those familiar with the movie ‘The Castle’ will recall that section 51(xxxi) says:

Welcome to the May 2014 edition of the Holman Webb Health Law Bulletin.

The amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) commenced on 12 March 2014, which are applicable to Commonwealth Government agencies and the private health sector. Ignore them at your peril because the penalties for breaches have significantly increased up to $1,700,000 for businesses and $340,000 for individuals.

If your business or organisation has a turnover greater than 3 million per year the significant changes that were made to the Australian Privacy Act on 12 March 2014 are likely to apply to your organisation. A compliance program should be implemented to ensure any personal information that is used or disclosed by the organisation is appropriately protected.

The reforms implemented 13 new Australian Privacy Principals, with substantial changes being made to the principles surrounding direct marketing and cross border disclosure of information.  Additional changes to the Act implement changes to the credit reporting regime that will be particularly relevant to insurers if they undertake online credit reference checks on insureds or other individuals.

A decision of the Industrial Court of NSW has reiterated the need for labour hire employers to take a proactive approach to ensuring the safety of workers when lent on assignment to host employers (Inspector McGrath v Edmen Recruitment Pty Ltd [2012] NSWIRComm 108).  

Click here to read Julia Brabant and Uma Kotecha's overview of the recent changes.

The Australian Government has released the draft new Franchising Code of Conduct for review (and yet more feedback).  The Minister for Small Business says the government wants to “promote growth in the sector, reduce red tape and make sure that all participants in the industry follow best practice principles”.  Does it do that?  Let’s look at the major changes:

Tim Trezise recently presented a paper at the Employment Law Essentials seminar at the New South Wales Law Society. The paper canvassed the growing issue of the standard of proof required to make defensible findings in workplace investigations. This has become a hot topic following a recent case that significantly broadened the scope of the level of proof required in such endeavours.

If your business collects, uses or discloses personal information, maintains a client or customer database or uses a cloud computer system, changes to the laws that commenced on 12 March 2014 are relevant to you.