On 26 March 2008 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for a National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions, which will commence on 1 July 2010. The agreement will establish a single national registration and accreditation scheme for health professionals, beginning with the nine professions currently registered in all jurisdictions. That is, chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy, optometry, nursing and midwifery, pharmacy, dental care (dentists, dental hygienists, dental prosthetists and dental therapists), medicine, and psychology.

The objectives of the national scheme, to be set out in the legislation, are to:

(a)   provide for the protection of the public by ensuring that only practitioners who are suitable trained and qualified to practise in a competent and
        ethical manner are registered;

(b)   facilitate workforce mobility across Australia and reduce red tape for practitioners;

(c)   facilitate the provision of high quality education and training and rigorous and responsive assessment of overseas-trained practitioners;

(d)   have regard to the public interest in promoting access to health services; and

(e)   have regard to the need to enable the continuous development of a flexible, responsive and sustainable Australian health workforce and enable
        innovation in education and service delivery.

The IGA can be viewed at www.coag.gov.au under “COAG Meeting Outcomes”.