Question Number: 136
PDR Number: SQ22-000127
Date Submitted: 24/02/2022
Department or Body: Department of Health

118.

As previously explained, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) is not an Australian Government entity, but it is established under complementary state and territory legislation (the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law). This makes Ahpra a statutory body of each and all state and territory governments.

The choice to use a ‘.gov.au’ domain for Ahpra and the 15 health practitioner regulation National Boards reflects their national operation and avoids confusion and duplication for the public and practitioners that would arise from replicating websites in each state and territory jurisdiction’s domain (e.g. ‘.qld.gov.au’).

119.

Each National Board derives its funding through the collection of health practitioner registration fees. Ahpra is funded from these fees under bilateral agreements with each Board. Fees collected for each Board must be used for the regulation of the relevant profession.

While Ahpra and the Boards do not receive any funding from either the Australian Government or any state or territory government for their core functions, they do receive funding for additional projects and services from time to time.

The former Australian Government provided $9.781 million from 2019-20 to 2021-22 to Ahpra for the delivery of services and support to health practitioners during COVID-19, negating the need to increase practitioner fees to meet these costs. This funding also facilitated the establishment and maintenance of two pandemic response sub-registers. The sub-registers enable recently retired practitioners to return to work in their profession without needing to pay registration fees. The sub-registers are time-limited and will cease in April 2022 and September 2022.