Our legal experts will keep you up to date on all relevant and current developments.
Like the US, Australia is experiencing the proliferation of mobile medical apps (software applications that can be executed on a mobile platform) which seek to provide a number of functionalities, many of which operate between traditional disease management and health and wellness. Some of these new apps assist consumers with their health and wellness management, whilst others provide healthcare providers with tools to improve and facilitate the delivery of patient care.
As part of the 2010/11 Federal budget, the Government announced a $466.7 million investment over two years for a national Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) system for all Australians who choose to register on-line, from 2012-2013. This initiative has the potential to be a revolutionary step for Australian health care, in terms of both consumer's access to their own health information and improvement in information which will be available to health professionals when they treat a patient.
The Owners Strata Plan 61288 v Brookfield Australia Investments (New South Wales Court of Appeal, 25 September 2013)
SP 61288 is the owner of the common property of serviced apartments, the Mantra Chatswood Hotel (rather than a residential development). The statutory warranties by the builder under the Home Building Act (which allow a 6 year period for the discovery of structural defects) did not apply to the construction, as those warranties only apply to residential building work.
Australia privacy rights are regulated by Commonwealth and State legislation and the laws protecting confidential information under the common law.
Australian privacy laws govern the collection, use and disclosure of “personal information”. Further, individuals are provided with a right of access and correction of their own personal information. There are also data security, data quality and cross-border transborder data flow requirements.
In the 2012-13 financial year, the Compliance Branch of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) received 1496 privacy complaints, and increase of 10% over the 1357 received in 2011-12. In addition, the OAIC dealt with 13 own motion investigations and 61 voluntary data breach notifications. Here is one case (misuse of a mobile phone number by a bank to direct market a bank related insurance product) that may be of interest…
The case was based on an alleged breach by the bank where it used or disclosed personal information about an individual for a purpose other than the primary purpose of collection.
The Insurance Contracts Act (ICA) has been described as one of the most significant and comprehensive pieces of consumer protection legislation ever enacted in Australia. Fundamental changes have recently been introduced, but it has also left matters silent on other fronts. The various provisions begin at different times between 28 June 2013 and December 2015, in order to allow insurers some time to amend their internal policies and procedures to take account of the new changes, many of which apply to general commercial policies. The majority of the provisions also only apply if the policy is entered into after the provision has commenced. It is imperative that brokers and underwriters are made aware of these changes.
The NSW Court of Appeal has decided that a breach of section 62 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 (the mandatory obligation for a strata plan to maintain the common property) does not give rise to an action for damages for breach of its statutory duty.
From the start of the new year there are to be more changes to the Privacy Act 1988 which could be relevant to you and your business. You will need to consider your own privacy compliance arrangements to make sure they don’t leave you at risk.
The Privacy Act changes commence in March 2014.
If your credit application, privacy policy or terms and conditions of trade do not property take the new amendments into account, you may find yourself in danger of breaching the new Act. The changes have imposed new credit reporting provisions, and have given enforcement powers to the privacy Commissioner.
It is no longer certain that an employee injured on a journey between home and work will receive worker’s compensation benefits.
For compensation to be payable, the NSW Act now requires that there be a ‘real and substantial connection’ between the employment and the incident in which the injury occurred.