New guidelines for Australia’s cosmetic industry
Natasha May
Australians having cosmetic procedures will have stronger protections from today, with new guidelines for health practitioners coming into effect.
The guidelines, published by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), target unsafe practices and misleading ads for non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as injections and fillers.
Under the new rules, further training or education will be necessary for many health practitioners wanting to expand the services they provide into these procedures. Many will need more than just the foundational qualifications – nurses, for example, will be required to complete a set period of practice before they are allowed to perform these procedures.
The nursing and midwifery board of Australia chair, adjunct Prof Veronica Casey, said the guidelines are the robust response needed to safeguard consumers in the growing industry.
A lot of people might think of these procedures in the same way they’d consider getting a facial or a haircut. But these are clinical procedures and require appropriate training and experience to be performed safely.
Key events
Labor and Liberal frontbenchers agree: public land should be public land
There’s at least one thing that Labor frontbencher Amanda Rishworth and Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson have in common, and that’s an opposition to a Sydney council’s idea to charge large groups – including schools, dog walkers or personal trainers – to pay to use public parks.
North Sydney council is considering a new fee for groups of 21 people or more at parks that are heavily used by private schools and commercial operators.
On the Today show earlier, Rishworth said “public land should be public land”:
Public land should be public land … from time to time councils might need to manage how that public land is shared. But ultimately public land should be public land.
Wilson said the idea “doesn’t pass the pub test”, but there were exceptions.
Unless you’re using it for a commercial purpose, and then, of course, if you’re part of a small business using it for commercial purpose, then there should be some discussion.
Josh Butler
Australia must modernise its health system and chase productivity gains in the care field, the Business Council has said in a major new report, saying hospitals must upgrade from systems sometimes based on paper copies and fax machines.
The BCA says the healthcare sector must also look to maximise benefits from artificial intelligence, which the business group says could free up big chunks of doctors’ time so they can see more patients or avoid burnout.
Its Supporting A Healthy and Productive Nation report says without greater innovation, the health system will face poorer service delivery in future. It notes the number of retirees to working-age people rising, the gap between Medicare levy revenue and benefits paid out and increasing expediture on aged care and the NDIS.
A major recommendation is for the health system to invest more in digital technology in a bid to increase productivity and eliminate duplications or errors.
Rohan Mead, chair of the BCA’s Health committee and CEO of banking and insurance firm Australian Unity, said:
In 2025, it would astound many Australians that the majority of hospitals are still paper-based and that up to 75% of global fax traffic comes from medical services.
AI has the potential to free up 30% of a clinician’s time, allowing them to spend more time with Australians, while telehealth already saves Australians up to $895m per year in reduced travel – these are improvements that make everyone better off.
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you for what will be another busy sitting day in parliament, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
There’s plenty coming up, so let’s get straight into it!
Arguments to reduce tobacco excise ‘simplistic’ and ‘misguided’: AMA
Natasha May
Calls to reduce the tobacco excise as a way to tackle the illegal tobacco industry are a “simplistic, misguided and ineffective solution”, Australia’s peak medical body says.
The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Danielle McMullen, said there had been a “worrying increase in calls to reduce tobacco excise, with the idea, not surprisingly, backed by big tobacco.”
The scheduled rise in the tobacco excise occurred earlier this week after criticism from the NSW premier, Chris Minns, and Victoria’s minister for casino, gaming and liquor regulation, who blamed high tobacco prices for a spike in violent crime related to the illicit trade – an idea which was rejected by federal ministers, citing overseas evidence.
McMullen said:
There’s absolutely no evidence to support the idea that reducing excise will impact illegal tobacco — in fact the evidence says the opposite, with jurisdictions that have reduced the excise seeing a horrible combination of increased smoking rates and no tangible impact on the illegal tobacco trade.
Natasha May
Crackdown on advertising idealising or sexualising cosmetic procedures
Changes to the rules around Advertising for cosmetic surgery will focus on higher-risk procedures, requiring advertisements only use real images and avoid airbrushing or editing that misleads the public.
The guidelines also specify that the use of photographs, videos and images in advertising must not “idealise or sexualise higher risk cosmetic procedures through the use of sexualised images, such as poses suggestive of sexual positions, parting of legs, hands placed near genitals or positions that imply sexual readiness, or gratuitous nudity.”
Ahpra says the guidelines will also offer greater protection for young people, with those under the age of 18 considering non-surgical cosmetic procedures required to have a mandatory seven-day cooling-off period between their first consultation and any procedures, while advertising by practitioners aimed at under 18s will also be banned.
Ahpra’s CEO, Justin Untersteiner, said practitioners have had since May to get their houses in order and make sure their practice and advertising complies with the new guidelines.
“Practitioners have been warned. If we find practitioners prioritising profits over patient care, we will not hesitate to act.”
New guidelines for Australia’s cosmetic industry
Natasha May
Australians having cosmetic procedures will have stronger protections from today, with new guidelines for health practitioners coming into effect.
The guidelines, published by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), target unsafe practices and misleading ads for non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as injections and fillers.
Under the new rules, further training or education will be necessary for many health practitioners wanting to expand the services they provide into these procedures. Many will need more than just the foundational qualifications – nurses, for example, will be required to complete a set period of practice before they are allowed to perform these procedures.
The nursing and midwifery board of Australia chair, adjunct Prof Veronica Casey, said the guidelines are the robust response needed to safeguard consumers in the growing industry.
A lot of people might think of these procedures in the same way they’d consider getting a facial or a haircut. But these are clinical procedures and require appropriate training and experience to be performed safely.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Krishani Dhanji will take you through another busy day in Canberra and beyond.
Australians undergoing cosmetic procedures should have more protection from rogue operators under new guidelines released today by the regulator. The new rules crack down on misleading ads and will require better training for practitioners.
Elsewhere in health, calls to reduce the tobacco excise as a way to tackle the illegal tobacco industry are a “simplistic, misguided and ineffective solution”, Australia’s peak medical body says.
And the Albanese government will face renewed pressure today from opposition parties to release immediate in-home aged care funding; while there will also be more scrutiny on the government’s Nauru deportation plan – though Anthony Albanese has denied there is anything secret about it. We’ll have all the developments as they happen today.
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