Roger Magnusson
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The health of Australia’s democracy: time to scale up a national conversation
How healthy is Australia’s democracy? Roger Magnusson considers the place of human rights in democratic life and the case for a broader national conversation.
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Innovation down under 2: tobacco endgame strategies in New Zealand (the UK & USA)
Australia and New Zealand have pursued different approaches to tobacco control. This post compares the purpose and design of their recent reforms.
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Innovation down under 1: what has Australia been doing in tobacco control recently?
Vaping reforms have attracted attention, but Australia has also overhauled its tobacco control laws. Roger Magnusson explains the changes introduced by the 2023 national legislation.
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Tracing Australia’s vaping controls back to source
Australia’s vaping rules changed substantially in 2023–2024. This guide traces the major reforms back to their legislative sources and explains how the framework fits together.
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Paradise at risk: recommendations to control tobacco and alcohol industry interference in Pacific Island Countries and Territories
Tobacco and alcohol industry influence threatens public health across the Pacific. The authors consider how governments can better protect health policy from that interference.
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Teenagers refusing life-saving cancer treatment for religious reasons
Should courts allow minors (<18 years) to refuse life-saving medical treatment for religious reasons? My students don’t all agree that respect for the personal autonomy of a minor who fully understands the consequences of their decision, is all that matters. But many of them do.
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Legislative restrictions on irreversible surgery on intersex children in the ACT: An unsurprising development?
Over a number of decades, personal autonomy has become a dominant value in Australian medical law. Yet, as new legislation restricting intersex interventions illustrates, the content of personal autonomy is subtly changing.
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Strengthening Australia’s smoke and vape-free beach culture (north, and south, of the border)
Keeping beaches smoke and vape-free severs the link between relaxation and nicotine addiction. It says you don’t need to harm your body to enjoy yourself.
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Vaping law reform: New South Wales in a federal context
There is a lot of vaping-related law reform activity going on in Australia at the moment. This (long) post reviews NSW vaping laws and provides a baseline for understanding the changes that are underway, both at NSW (State) and Commonwealth level. Background The failure to enforce nicotine control laws, together with ludicrously low penalties, have…
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Proving the “competent professional practice” defence in NSW: Is the law any clearer after Dean v Pope?
Background A health practitioner who is sued for negligence in NSW will avoid liability under s 5O(1) of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) “if it is established that the professional acted in a manner that (at the time the service was provided) was widely accepted in Australia by peer professional opinion as competent professional…
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Pokies: joyless, nasty, and on the way out?
Some pubs are removing poker machines. Roger Magnusson considers gambling harm and the case for stronger regulation in NSW.
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Global health law short courses
If you live on planet earth, you have a stake in global health law. This post draws attention to two upcoming short courses taught by global health law colleagues in Europe. Summer in Geneva? The University of Geneva will be hosting a course on International Law, Global Health and Global Justice on June 26-30, 2023.…
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Alcohol causes 3 million deaths each year. Eliminating conflicts of interest is vital to bringing this number down
Alcohol causes three million deaths each year, including 13.5% of deaths amongst those aged 20-39 years. But the personal and economic costs of alcohol-related harm are not met by the alcohol industry.
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Another step forward for the Pacific Legislative Framework
Pacific Island Countries and Territories have some of the world’s highest rates of health risks. In response, the Public Health Division of the Pacific Community (SPC) has been driving an initiative for tackling the key risk factors: the Pacific Legislative Framework.
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Closing the Gap and health governance reform: a brief review
The National Agreement on Closing the Gap is an ambitious all-of-government framework for improving the health and welfare of Australia’s first nations peoples. This post briefly reviews the Agreement and considers its significance as an example of health governance reform.
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Prospects for the World Health Assembly’s pandemic instrument
The World Health Assembly (WHA) has established an intergovernmental negotiating body to “draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response”. The Assembly’s decision was made at the special session of the WHA, convened for the specific purpose of considering the benefits of such an instrument. But…
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Vaccine mandates webinar
On 9 December, the Parsons Centre for Law & Business, together with Corrs Chambers Westgarth, convened a seminar entitled Vaccine mandates and public health orders: legal and ethical issues for business. The seminar reviews the emergence of vaccine mandates in public health orders in NSW, and vaccine mandates imposed by businesses and other organisations from…
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Religious discrimination in Australian health law: hype or reality?
Queensland has passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021. I’m disappointed in Queensland’s Parliament, not for passing assisted dying legislation, but for consciously trampling over the religious beliefs of Catholic and other religious healthcare organisations. Catholic hospitals are right to be aggrieved. It’s entirely predictable that church institutions are now considering civil disobedience. (See “Catholic…
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A triumph for religious freedom, or viral spreading? The US Supreme Court in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v Cuomo
During his Presidency, President Trump had the opportunity to appoint three new Justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2017, the acerbic conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch replaced Justice Antonin Scalia; In 2018, Justice Brett Kavanaugh replaced retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy; and In 2020, Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. These three appointments…
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The tricky business of Covid-19 reviews & origins investigations
Dr Dominic Dwyer, Australia’s member of the WHO-convened Global Study of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2, won’t remember me, but he was generous and helpful when I interviewed him as a PhD student in the early 1990s. His more recent comments to the media illustrate the challenges of attempting to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2 as…