MediNat Australia

Wednesday 17 May 2017 11:00am By James Purtill From next January, anyone applying for Newstart or Youth Allowance in one of three as-yet-unnamed areas could be tested for drug use. Not everyone gets tested. Job seekers and students will be profiled to identify the ones most likely to be taking drugs. We don't know what the profiling will be based on, only that it will be "relevant characteristics that indicate a higher risk of substance abuse". That could be anything from age, to income, to gender to school leaving age. But we do know what criteria the government will use to pick the three trial sites: High rates of welfare; High rates of drug use; Available counselling services. That narrows it down a bit. The three trial sites will test 5,000 *new* applicants, so they need to be Centrelink offices with a lot of people walking through the doors. The office with the highest number of payment recipients in December 2016 (the most recent

Good article by Fay Calderone Partner DIBBSBARKER Fast Fact Alcohol and other drugs cost Australian workplaces an estimated $6bn per year in lost productivity. Recent research has estimated that 2.5 million days are lost annually due to alcohol and other drug use. Persons Conducting Business or Undertaking (PCBUs) have an onerous duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others in their workplace under WHS laws. This includes the provision of a safe work environment, information, instruction, training and supervision in relation to WHS that extends to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol at work. Workers also have an obligation under WHS laws to protect their own health safety and that of others in the workplace. As such, showing up to work under the influence may be a breach by the worker of their WHS obligations as it is of the PCBU that failed to prevent it. It is also considered "serious miscond

Acquittal of man caught drug-driving nine days after smoking cannabis throws NSW drug laws into doubt By the News National Reporting Team's Lorna Knowles and Alison Branley New South Wales's roadside drug testing laws have been thrown into doubt after a magistrate acquitted a man who tested positive for cannabis he had smoked nine days before he was pulled over. Key points: Man waited nine days after smoking cannabis before he got behind the wheel THC was detected in his saliva and he was charged He had earlier been told by police to wait at least a week before driving The Greens say the judgement leaves the drug testing laws in disarray Lismore magistrate David Heilpern yesterday found Joseph Ross Carrall not guilty of driving with an illicit drug in his blood because he mistakenly believed that he would no longer test positive to the drug. Mr Carrall was pulled over for random drug tests in May and June last year. When he was tested in May

Privacy Intrusions and When Drug Testing in Australia National Law Review 19 May 2015 There has been a long running battle in Australia about whether an employer, when testing for drug use, can ask employees to provide a urine sample. Many unions have resisted the introduction of urine testing, arguing that saliva testing is sufficient and, as such, the process of sampling urine is an unjustified invasion of privacy. Employers, however, want to have both methods available, arguing that saliva testing has recognised limitations. Last month, the Fair Work Commission ( Commission ) sided with an employer by granting them the right to perform both saliva and urine testing on its employees for drug use. More...........

Staying drug-safe at work By Staff Writers - Government News Continued recreational drug use in Australia presents an urgent challenge for local governments to show leadership to ensure all their staff have a safe workplace, according to testing expert Michael White. A recent United Nations report on worldwide drug use showed that, per capita, Australia has the highest rates of dangerous and illicit drug use in the world. In effect, Australians are the world’s highest users of Ecstasy, Ice and Cannabis, and many of those drug-using Australians work in local government jobs. The variety of potentially dangerous roles carried out by local government employees is of significant concern to Michael White, who says that local governments need to get serious about drugs in the workplace, and develop procedures and protocols to ensure local government worksites are drug-safe. “Council workers are driving trucks, operating heavy machinery, in charge of roadside mowers, bu