Regulation

• Laws regulating cosmetic surgery advertising must be strengthened to protect consumers

  28th Oct 2021

  The current laws regulating the advertising of cosmetic surgery are not sufficient to ensure public safety, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).

• Government’s plan to deregister charities for trifling offences is an overreach

  22nd Jul 2021

  New proposed laws governing the regulation of charities and not-for-profit (NFP) organisations may result in the deregistering of charities and NFPs, if a member or volunteer commits a minor offence during a demonstration. Maurie Stack argues that this is a clear attempt to silence activists, pointing to the broad scope of the proposed changes and existing laws that cover fraudulent activities committed by charities and NFPs.

• ASIC’s loss to Westpac is terrible for everyone

  3rd Sep 2020

  Despite its Federal Court loss in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Westpac Banking Corporation [2020] FCAFC 111, ASIC was right to appeal the dismissal of its responsible lending case, says Andy Schmulow. He discusses how this case has exposed the deficiencies of the purported remedy for reckless lending and advocates for urgent legislative reform.

• Cosmetic Surgery: the end of an unregulated medical specialty?

  19th Oct 2016

  In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of cosmetic surgery being performed in Australia. Cosmetic surgery is no longer only for the rich and famous; it is becoming more popular and accepted within the community at large. The increase in the availability of cosmetic surgery has led to stiff competition between providers, driving down prices.

  With this increase in use, there have been a number of recently reported incidents where patients have suffered adverse reactions during cosmetic surgery procedures or from patients unhappy with the results of their surgery, which highlights the lack of regulation of the industry.