Category Archives: News
Doherty, ACCC, TGA, Harvey — Skeptics’ mini-convention
The annual Australian Skeptics’ convention will be back in Sydney this November at the Australian Museum. This will be a mini-convention for one day only. And ticket prices will be low to match — $65, with a discounted $45 for students. But despite the short time and low prices, we’re still calling in an impressive line-up of speakers: Nobel laureate Prof Peter Doherty … Read on »
News flash: Ken Harvey wins defamation case … but another looms
On the morning of August 15 at the NSW Supreme Court, the $800,000 defamation case against Dr Ken Harvey, brought by ‘weight-loss’ company SensaSlim, was dismissed and costs were awarded. However, Harvey said he would be surprised if those costs were ever paid. To date, Harvey’s legal bills amount to approximately $35,000, which is higher than our … Read on »
Ken Harvey and Sensaslim – the bills come in
Australian Skeptics is calling for your support for Ken Harvey. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted proceedings against Sensaslim Australia, including past scammer Peter Foster. The ACCC says the company failed to disclose Foster’s participation, a serious issue considering that he has been involved in a number of controversies in the last decades, including the … Read on »
NSW South Coast Skeptics in the Pub
[ Sunday, July 31, 2011; 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. ] NSW South Coast residents now have a place to meet other Skeptics in the conviviality of a Skeptics in the Pub get-together. Batemans Bay residents and prominent Skeptics Heidi White and Mark Lumb are holding the shire’s first SitP meeting at the Mariners Hotel in Orient St, Batemans Bay, at 1.00pm on July 31. The joint winner … Read on »
Griffith Uni rejects homeopathy link
Griffith University, having recently launched a candidate malaria vaccine to protect against all known strains of the deadly disease, has definitively rejected any link between the vaccine and homeopathy. “Our candidate vaccine is not related to homeopathy in any way,” says Professor Michael F Good, chair of the National Health & Medical Research Council, and chairman of … Read on »
Review into TGA transparency
A review into the transparency of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the body that is tasked with establishing and maintaining a “national system of controls relating to the quality, safety, efficacy and timely availability of therapeutic goods”, has found that the TGA has been conservative in its actions and that it can do a lot more … Read on »
Call for no-fault compensation for adverse vaccine events
In an article in the June issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, three medical specialists have called for the introduction of a no-fault compensation scheme for serious adverse events which can be confidently attributed to vaccination. The authors of the article are Heath A Kelly, head of the Epidemiology Unit at the Victorian Infectious Diseases … Read on »
UPDATE: SensaSlim, the ACCC and Dr Ken Harvey
UPDATE: Subsequent to the ACCC freezing SensaSlim’s Australian bank account (see story below), Dr Ken Harvey reports that SensaSlim’s lawyers (Kennedys) have withdrawn from the case, and an external administrator was appointed to take over the company on June 30, 2011. A revised statement of claim from SensaSlim in the defamation case against Harvey was not … Read on »
ACCC investigates SensaSlim
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has applied for an order to “preserve” the assets of SensaSlim, the company promoting a ‘weight loss’ product and which has also taken legal action against health campaigner Dr Ken Harvey for defamation. The application will be heard in the Federal Court in Sydney on June 23 at 12 noon. While the … Read on »
Skeptics co-founder Mark Plummer dies
It is with deep regret that we learn of the death on June 16 of Mark Plummer, co-founder and early power-house of Australian Skeptics. Barry Williams, himself a member of Australian Skeptics for its entire lifespan and a former president and founding executive officer, comments on Mark’s role and impact on the Skeptical movement in Australia and elsewhere: In … Read on »
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