March 2025

Issue 37 - March 2025

From the Chair
Priority news
- Discrimination and racism will not be tolerated: Joint statement from Ahpra and the National Boards
- Health practitioner regulators united: family violence is unacceptable
Board news
What’s new?
Want more information?

From the Chair

Welcome to the first Chiropractic Board newsletter of 2025.

We want to hear from you about our review of the Guidelines – Clinical record keeping for chiropractors. The consultation is open until 2 May 2025. We’ve also announced parental leave fee relief which will come into effect on 1 July this year.

I encourage you to read both the joint statement from Ahpra and the National Boards on discrimination and racism in healthcare and the joint position from regulators of health practitioners on family violence. Health practitioners have important roles to play in addressing both these important issues.

With over 6,700 registered chiropractors, our profession continues to grow from strength to strength and I wish you all a healthy and happy year ahead.

Dr Wayne Minter AM
Chair, Chiropractic Board of Australia

Priority news

Discrimination and racism will not be tolerated: Joint statement from Ahpra and the National Boards

More than 900,000 registered health practitioners provide much needed safe healthcare every day in Australia.

Safe healthcare relies on trust between patients and practitioners. Discrimination and racism erode that trust and put lives at risk.

There is no place for discrimination, racism or intolerance in healthcare.

Ahpra and the National Boards remind registered health practitioners of their obligations under their codes of conduct and ethics to provide care that is free of discrimination and racism. The codes of conduct and ethics set out the legal requirements, professional behaviour and conduct expectations for registered health practitioners in Australia. The codes underpin the requirements for the delivery of safe and respectful practice.

The shared Code of conduct, for example, states that practitioners must:

respect diverse cultures, beliefs, gender identities, sexualities and experiences of people, including among team members
adopt practices that respect diversity, avoid bias, discrimination and racism, and challenge belief based upon assumption.

The codes for all professions include similar requirements.

Practitioners must also comply with the standards of their workplace and adopt practices that foster a respectful, inclusive and safe healthcare environment.

Read the full statement on the Ahpra website.

Health practitioner regulators united: family violence is unacceptable

Australia’s health practitioner regulators are united in their view that family violence is unacceptable.

For the first time ever, these regulators issued a joint statement reminding practitioners of the critical contribution they can make in Australia’s response to tackling family violence.

The statement recognises the role of regulators in the collective effort to end family violence by supporting victim-survivors, setting clear expectations of health practitioners, taking regulatory action as appropriate and condemning all forms of family violence.

Health practitioners are often the first point of contact for victim-survivors, so play an essential role in the early detection, support, referral, and delivery of specialised treatment to those experiencing family violence.

Health practitioners are also reminded that their own conduct, as well as that of their colleagues, must reflect the trust and confidence the public have in them for safe and effective healthcare.

Regulators work to ensure health practitioners are safe, ethical, and professional for the protection of the public.

Family violence is a serious crime and a violation of human rights. It is a gross departure from the ethical standards of behaviour expected of health practitioners. Health practitioners who are perpetrators of family violence could face suspension, cancellation, the imposition of conditions, or refusal of registration.

As regulators we are committed to minimising the risk of adding to victim-survivors’ trauma or exposing them to further risk of harm. We seek to respond to victim-survivors’ complaints about health practitioners in a trauma-informed way. This means prioritising the safety and dignity of victim-survivors and respectfully and sensitively supporting them through the health complaint management process.

We encourage any person aware of a health practitioner perpetrating family violence to provide information to the police and appropriate regulatory body. A list of health practitioner regulator contact details, as well as police, family violence information and support services, is included in the joint position statement.

Read the media release.

Board news

Consultation to update record keeping guidance

The Board is reviewing guidelines on record keeping for chiropractors and wants to hear from you. The Guidelines – Clinical record keeping for chiropractors were developed over a decade ago and are being reviewed to ensure they meet current expectations and practices.

Read the consultation paper and have your say.

Parental leave fee relief on the way

A 30 per cent rebate on annual registration fees for practitioners who take parental leave will come into effect on 1 July 2025, while a wider review of pro rata fees gets underway.

This action is designed to provide relief for practitioners taking parental leave (and other forms of protected leave types such as disability and carer’s leave).

It is a first step in a range of measures that Ahpra and the National Boards are examining to make the annual registration fees system more flexible and responsive.

New accreditation standards in effect

Following a comprehensive review by the Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia (CCEA), the Board has approved the Accreditation Standards for Chiropractic Programs and Competency Standards for Chiropractors. Programs of study must meet the standards to be accredited by the CCEA and approved by the Board as a qualification leading to registration as a chiropractor.

The revised standards came into effect on 27 February 2025.

Latest workforce data released

The Board’s latest quarterly registration data report covers the period to 31 December 2024. At this date there were 6,734 registered chiropractors, including 499 with non-practising registration.

For further data breakdowns by age, gender and principal place of practice, visit the Board’s Statistics page to read the report.

What’s new?

More flexible English language pathways for practitioners registering in Australia

The revised Registration standard: English language skills is now in effect. While already registered practitioners won’t need to meet this standard, these changes will enable more flexible pathways for future applicants, getting more practitioners into the workforce safely.

The updated ELS standards have:

expanded the list of recognised countries
reduced the writing component score for the approved English language tests from IELTS 7 to 6.5 (or equivalent) in all professions
added the Cambridge English Language Skills test
extended timeframes for accepting a combined result from two tests from six months to 12 months, and
widened the grounds for extending the validity of English language test results to include continuously working in appropriate roles in recognised countries.

New case studies added to guidance for practitioners using social media

Ahpra and the National Boards have made some updates to the social media guidance to ensure the guidance remains relevant and useful to practitioners.

The updates include prioritising the information around public comment and trust in the professions to highlight the recent joint statement on discrimination and racism, new case studies for social media activities likely to warrant an investigation, and further professionalism pitfalls to be aware of when using social media.

While these additions do not change the underlying guidance for practitioners, it provides further clarity on emerging issues. Ahpra and the National Boards will assess the need to conduct a full review of the guidance in the future, with an opportunity for you to provide feedback.

Read the latest additions to the social media guidance on our website.

Ahpra appoints new CEO

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) has appointed Justin Untersteiner as Chief Executive Officer.

Justin, who will join Ahpra in April, brings over 20 years’ experience in regulation and compliance, most recently as Chief Operating Officer at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

Ahpra Board Chair Gill Callister PSM said that Justin was an impressive leader who stood out in a field of domestic and international candidates.

‘Justin’s experience in leading change and bringing new approaches, combined with his knowledge of regulation and compliance, made him a standout candidate,’ she said.

‘Justin’s appointment marks an exciting new chapter for Ahpra, and the Board is looking forward to working with him to build the next phase of Australia’s health regulation system.’

Justin succeeds Martin Fletcher who completed his final term as CEO in December 2024.

Learn more about Ahpra’s incoming CEO.

New Ahpra practitioner portal

Ahpra recently launched a new online practitioner portal, and new digital smart forms for application and renewal of registration.

This means next time you log in, the experience will be a bit different. When you next renew, you’ll be asked to migrate your existing account to the new practitioner portal. We’ve introduced multifactor authentication (also called two-step verification) for additional account security. For more information on setting up your portal and two-step verification, visit our Ahpra portal help centre.

We’ve also stopped using the 10-digit User ID, and have switched to an email username. As your email is now your user ID, it must be unique to you. It cannot be one you share with anyone else.

You won’t be able to use an email shared by your family, or the reception email used at your clinic.

Once you’ve set up your practitioner portal, you will use it to manage all aspects of your registration.

If you’re lodging a new application for limited, general or specialist registration, you’ll be using our new digital smart forms. The forms step you through the process, showing only the questions that are relevant to your application. You can complete your proof of identity check and upload your documents all through the portal.

When it’s time to renew your registration, we will provide detailed instructions on how to set up your new Ahpra practitioner portal.

Help protect your data

Help protect your data by being alert to scammers and only logging in to the Ahpra portal direct from the Ahpra website: www.ahpra.gov.au.

We will only ask you to log in to your Ahpra portal when you’re due to renew your registration.

Multifactor authentication adds an extra layer of security, protecting your online data.

Research provides clues to boost health workforce retention

Most Australian health practitioners surveyed say they want to stay in their profession, however more than one in 10 are unsure about their future or have plans to leave within a year, with mental burnout a key reason why.

New research from Ahpra, published in the Australian Health Review, identifies the factors driving practitioners’ choices to stay or leave the health workforce, across nine regulated health professions.

Despite a regulated workforce of 920,535 health practitioners in 2024, forecasts predict that the sector will struggle to meet the demands of Australia’s growing and ageing population in coming years.

Ahpra’s Workforce Retention and Attrition Project found the top five reasons influencing practitioners to leave their profession included mental burnout, retirement, feeling undervalued/unrecognised, lack of professional satisfaction, and work no longer being fulfilling.

Chair of the Psychology Board of Australia and Co-convener of the Forum of National Registration and Accreditation Scheme Chairs, Rachel Phillips said improvements in these areas could have a major impact on increasing retention in the health workforce and, importantly, improving the health and wellbeing of practitioners.

‘A resilient health workforce is essential to keeping our communities safe, healthy and growing, and the wellbeing of our practitioners goes hand-in-hand with that,’ she said.

‘These findings highlight the importance of a working environment that is both professionally fulfilling and supportive of practitioner wellbeing – not only for the welfare of our valued practitioners themselves, but also the health needs of the patients they care for.’

Call for applications – Ahpra Community Advisory Council

Consumer representatives: Help shape how health regulation works in Australia!

Are you an active and engaged health consumer with lived experience who can represent the interests of the community?

Join a well-respected and effective advisory council that provides Ahpra and the National Boards with advice and connection with communities and health consumers.
Help shape important standards regulating health practitioners, how Ahpra engages with consumers, and provide consumer perspectives and advice on relevant issues.

To view the vacancy and submit an application, please visit the Committee member recruitment page.

For general enquiries please contact statutoryappointments@ahpra.gov.au.

Applications close Sunday 30 March 2025 at 11:55pm, Australian Eastern Standard Time.

Want more information?

Visit our website for news about the profession and for registration standards, codes, guidelines, policies and fact sheets.
Lodge an online enquiry form.
For registration enquiries call 1300 419 495 (from within Australia).
Address mail correspondence to: Dr Wayne Minter, Chair, Chiropractic Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne VIC 3001.