Portugal decriminalised personal consumption of drugs almost a decade ago, showing a lead to other advanced nations. It is also about to introduce an innovative national alcohol program. Advisor to the national drugs board, Fatima Trigueros, reports in d…
The world’s biggest maker of stun guns, Taser, has done a backflip and is now warning police forces to not aim the weapons at people’s chests. The company appears to be trying to make sure it can’t be sued if people die in future after being stunned by t…
DNA requires debate, legislationNew uses for DNA information are permeating Australia without debate about how we want to regulate either a useful guide to health or a tool to discrimate against people who – by accident of birth – are slightly different from whatever ‘average’ is.…
CLA is often asked about rights concerning drug tests in the workplace. Here two Australian academics discuss the usefulness of drug testing procedures and, among other issues, question whether mandatory testing can actually hide some problems that shoul…
The CLA submission is available here »…
The CLA submission is available here »…
Abortion is a difficult societal issue where health concerns are paramount. Women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. Laws around the issue of abortion should be based on health grounds, not criminal penalties.Abortion is a…
Any new health records system must safeguard a person’s ownership of their personal medical records, and their privacy from abuse or misuse of the information, CLA says in a submission to those designing the laws and rules around Australia’s new Health I…
Confusion surrounds federal, state and public authority proposals for a national e-health system in Australia, critics say. As competing bodies propose varied systems, no-one is consulting with privacy and civil liberties groups to ensure people’s he…
Should Medicare bureaucrats be able to pry into your personal health records whenever they like? No, CLA says…but Medicare is proposing new legislation so public servants could peer into your detailed doctors’ files, and at the same time put doctors th…