New South Wales Parliament Research Articles

NSW parliament’s oversight of human rights in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

New South Wales (NSW) relies on a robust application of the Westminster system of government for its human rights protection. In 2020, the system was subjected to a major stress test via the COVID-19 pandemic, with new public conditions imposed on previously unregulated individual freedoms. The author examines the extent to which human rights featured in NSW parliament’s oversight of the 2020 pandemic response and finds it inadequate. The author concludes that the case study demonstrates a need for the state’s human rights protection model to be reconsidered.

The NSW Mental Health Bill 2007: Implications for the Provision of Electroconvulsive Therapy

The Mental Health Act in New South Wales (NSW) has recently been revised, resulting in the Mental Health Bill 2007, which has been submitted to the NSW Parliament to be passed as law. The new Bill includes some changes to the sections dealing with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), particularly for involuntary patients. The implications of these changes for the provision of ECT in these patients are examined in this paper. New limits introduced in the Mental Health Bill 2007 may have potentially detrimental consequences for ECT therapy in involuntary patients and may inadvertently result in the provision of suboptimal ECT to these patients.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews