After months of hoping and waiting, a vaccine for COVID-19 is about to arrive in Australia. A handful of Australians are expected to have received their first Pfizer jab by the end of February.

The logistical challenges of vaccinating millions is not the only problem the Australian Government will face in coming months. Law makers and employers must also decide whether the COVID vaccine will be mandatory.

Can the government make vaccines mandatory?

The Federal Government does have legal grounds to make vaccines mandatory for all Australians, provided it is proven safe and effective. Australians would have little room to protest such a mandate under the Federal Biosecurity Act, which provides penalties for breaching Orders.

While Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, claimed the vaccine would be “as mandatory as you can possibly make it” in August, he later rescinded his comment and claimed it would be “encouraged.”

Vaccination could become a precondition for receiving government-funded services such as aged care, education and even border protection conditions. Like the “no job, no play” policy introduced in NSW in 2017, parents who do not vaccinate their children may be unable to enrol for childcare, or access family tax benefit payments and subsidies. Details of such a policy remain unconfirmed.

Whether Australians will be required to get the COVID vaccine as a prerequisite to travel will be determined imminently.

Can employers make vaccines mandatory?

Contracts of employment require employees to obey the lawful and reasonable directions of their employer. However, in such an unprecedented time, what is deemed “lawful and reasonable” is increasingly ambiguous. It can also vary between workplaces.

For example, it would probably be considered lawful and reasonable to require a childcare or aged care worker to get vaccinated. Some jurisdictions may even pass legislation to require employees in health and care sectors to be vaccinated with the COVID jab.

If you would like to discuss anything further with our experts at Freedman & Gopalan Solicitors, call us on 02 8999 9837.

The law stands on centuries of traditions and precedents. In contrast, technology is growing as a rate faster than ever before. On one hand, how will the law keep up technology? On the other hand, how will technology change the legal profession?

The President of the Law Council of Australia spoke at the Australian Young Lawyers’ Conference in 2017, and said technology is completely transforming the legal profession, and creates ‘unique opportunities to develop solutions for clients’. There are even emerging artificial intelligence technologies that can highlight the important clauses in a contract. Technology is changing the workplace, and clients can now expect increased effectiveness and efficiency.

There are new hybrid roles emerging for people who combine legal and IT elements into their jobs – the ‘lawyer technologist’. Law graduates with experience in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) will have clear advantages. Workplaces will have to help employees develop technology skills in order to keep up with rapid changes and advancements.

The other issue is that law may not be keeping up with advances in technology. It requires changes, such as the inclusion of cyberbullying in the Crimes Act to catch up, while technology keeps moving forward. One example is that it is illegal for an employer to ask about religion, sexual preferences or marital status in an interview, but they can go on social media and filter out applicants based on personal details found there. There is also the argument that privacy laws are lagging behind data-collection technologies used by Google, Apple, Facebook and various other applications and websites.

As long as technology continues to advance, which we know it will, the law (and lawyers) will have to work to keep up.