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Legislation

The National Law gives the Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner powers that come from the:

  • Ombudsman Act 1976 (Cwlth)

  • Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth)

  • Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cwlth)

The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (the National Law) was enacted in each state and territory of Australia in 2009 and 2010. The goal of the National Law was to create a national registration and accreditation scheme for registered health practitioners (the National Scheme).

The National Law creates the role of the Ombudsman and Commissioner and also the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the National Boards.

The National Law also sets out the objectives of the National Scheme and how it should operate.

How the National Law works

The National Law is not a Commonwealth law. Instead, it is enacted and implemented by each state and territory using an ‘adoption of laws’ model.

Queensland is the lead jurisdiction for implementing the National Law. If amendments are made to the National Law after approval by the Ministerial Council, Queensland:

  • submits a Bill to its parliament, in a form agreed by the Ministerial Council, which has the effect of amending the legislation in the manner agreed
  • takes all reasonable steps to secure the passage of the Bill and bring it into force in accordance with a timetable agreed by the Ministerial Council.

These changes are automatically applied in all other parliaments that are part of the National Scheme, except Western Australia (which needs to pass legislation to amend its Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (WA) Act 2010) and South Australia (which enacts a regulation to modify the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) 2010).

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Make a complaint

Find out more about how to make a complaint to the Ombudsman and Commissioner.

Apply for FOI review

Find out more about how to apply for review of Ahpra's FOI decision.

The legislation

Legislation related to the Ombudsman

The National Law confers specified jurisdiction on the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman that is derived from:

This legislation is modified by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Regulation to make it suitable for the National Scheme:

Legislation related to the Commissioner

The National Law confers specified jurisdiction on the National Health Practitioner Privacy Commissioner that is derived from:

These Commonwealth Acts are modified by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Regulation to make them suitable for the National Scheme:

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