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Report

The committee tabled its Report No. 18 - Health Practitioner Registration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 on 11 March 2013. The report is available here.

Referral

On 27 November 2012 the Health Practitioner Registration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 (the Bill) was introduced into the Legislative Assembly by the Hon Lawrence Springborg MP, Minister for Health. 

The Bill was referred to the Health and Community Services Committee in accordance with Standing Order 131.  The committee was required to report to the Parliament by 12 March 2013.

The Minister's explanatory speech can be found here

The Bill

The primary objective of the Bill is to abolish the State registration scheme for the dental technology and speech pathology professions.

On 26 March 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) signed the ‘Intergovernmental Agreement for a National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions’, which provides for a single national registration and accreditation scheme for health professions (‘the National Scheme’) to replace State and Territory based schemes.

COAG agreed to the inclusion of ten professions into the National Scheme from 1 July 2010 (chiropractic, dental (including dental prosthetics), medical, nursing and midwifery, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology).  On 1 July 2012, the medical radiation practice and occupational therapy professions transitioned to the National Scheme, leaving only dental technicians and speech pathologists registered in Queensland under the original health practitioner registration scheme.

Dental technicians and speech pathologists are not registered elsewhere in Australia, as these professions were deemed to not meet the criteria for inclusion into the National Scheme.  Speech pathologists were previously registered in the Northern Territory but this was discontinued.  Dental Technicians were previously registered in four other jurisdictions but registration has been discontinued.  Queensland is the only State or Territory with any State-based registration of health professionals.

The Bill and Explanatory Notes are available:

Health Practitioner Registration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

Explanatory Notes to the Bill 

Public briefing on the Bill

Queensland Health briefed the committee on the Bill on Monday 17 December 2012. The transcript is now available under the "Related Publications" tab. 

Submissions

The committee invited submissions on the Bill from interested individuals and organisations.  Submissions closed at 5pm on Friday 8 February 2012.

Public hearing

A public hearing into this Bill was held at 10.00am-10.30am on Wednesday 13 February 2013, in Committee Room 3, Parliamentary Annexe, Alice Street, Brisbane.  The hearing program can be accessed here. A transcript for this hearing is available under the 'Related Publications' tab.