WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  S/WPDR/W/28 
21 June 2004 
 (04-2694) 
Council for Trade in Services  
Working Party on Domestic Regulation  Original:   English 
 
 
 
COMMUNICATION FROM AUSTRALIA 
 
Professional Recognition in Australia  
  The following communication, dated 21 June 2004,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Australia. 
 
_______________ 
 
  Professional Regulation in Australia
 
1. A profession  may be defined as an occupation that requires the theoretical and practical 
application of a body of specialised knowledge ga ined through a specialised academic tertiary 
qualification generally at degree level or higher a nd, in some cases, relevant experience. The term 
profession  also refers to the body of people in such an occupation. 
2. Professional regulation helps ensure that professi onal services are provided by an individual 
with the appropriate knowledge, sk ills and experience, and that professional services are provided to 
an appropriate standard. Regulation in key professiona l areas serves the public interest, particularly in 
terms of health and safety, and contributes to the ma intenance of public confid ence in the standard of 
professional services provided and in the ethical st andards of the individuals providing them. 
3. Professional regulation has implications for ove rseas-trained individuals seeking to practise 
their profession in an Australian jurisdiction or ha ve their qualifications recognised for the purposes 
of undertaking further education or training within Australia.  
4. Section 51 of the Australian Constitution, which establishes Parliament's power to make laws 
for the peace, order, and good government of th e Commonwealth, does not grant Parliament the 
power to make laws on the regulation of profession s. The regulation of pr ofessions is therefore a 
matter for the state and territory governments. Certain activities which are engaged in by various 
professions are regulated under Commonwealth law, but not the professions themselves. 
5. In most English-speaking countries, it has trad itionally been considered appropriate to the 
status of the professions that their representatives  be allowed to set their own requirements for 
admission. This tradition of substantial self-regulat ion has been reinforced by the cultivation of 
perceptions of public interest involved in safegua rding the standards of the professions. Even where 
professions are regulated by law, it has generally been accepted in Australia that the legislated 
requirements are established on the basis of advice from the profession concerned. Adding to this quite high degree of autonomy is the fact that higher education programs in professional disciplines 
are generally accredited by the relevant professi onal bodies, which maintain close ties with the 
academic institutions involved. S/WPDR/W/28 
Page 2 
 
 
 6. The professions in Australia can be divided into four categories: 
 
• regulated professions  must by law be registered/licensed in all jurisdictions within 
Australia; 
• partially-regulated professions  fall into three categories: either some states or 
territories require registration/licensing under state law; or some activities carried out 
by that profession are regulated under state/territory law; or some activities carried out by that profession are regulated under Commonwealth law; and where no such 
legal requirements exist, these professions are otherwise considered self-regulated; 
• self-regulated professions  have no requirement for registration/licensing under law, 
but clear entry requirements to the profession are established by the profession and 
employment may be dependent upon demonstr ation of eligibility for membership of 
the key professional body; and 
• unregulated professions  have no requirement for registration/licensing under law; 
professional bodies may exist but do not ha ve control over professional standards. 
Employers make their own evaluation of employee skills rather than relying on 
membership of a professional body as a guide to standards. 
 
Regulated professions 
7. Where an individual in a professional occupation is registered or licensed, this means that 
they are registered or licensed under the terms of the relevant legislation. 
8. Individuals wishing to practise a regulated professi on in Australia must by law be registered 
with the appropriate registration or licensing board of the state or territory they wish to practise in. A 
professional body generally also exists to determ ine and maintain standards and processes for the 
regulation of the profession. 
9. Australia's Mutual Recognition Agreement ( see below for more on mutual recognition 
agreements) provides that if a person is register ed or licensed to practise an occupation in one 
Australian state or territory, he or she is eligible for registration in an equivalent occupation in any 
other participating state or territory without the need to undergo further assessment of qualifications 
or experience. 
10. Australian universities liaise with registra tion or licensing boards when developing new 
courses of study or changing existing courses to ensure  that graduates will be eligible for registration 
and/or for membership of the relevant professional body. 
11. The group of professions regulated by law includes: 
• health-related professions; 
• architecture; 
• legal practice;  
• quantity surveying;  and 
• veterinary science. 
 
Example:  pharmacy in Western Australia 
 Pharmacists in Western Australia ar e registered under the terms of the 
Pharmacy Act 1964 (WA) . The Act establishes a register of pharmaceutical 
chemists; it identifies qualifications for registration and the activities  S/WPDR/W/28 
 Page 3 
 
 
 pharmaceutical chemists may and may not engage in; and it establishes the 
Pharmaceutical Society of Western Aust ralia to which every pharmaceutical 
chemist belongs, and a Council to manage the Society, discipline registered pharmacists where appropriate and ove rsee educational standards for the 
pharmacy profession. 
 
Example:  nursing 
 There are two levels of nurse in Australia: the registered nurse and the 
enrolled nurse. Each level has its own educational requirements and 
professional standards. The Australian Nursing Council (ANC) is the national professional body for nursing. Its purpose is to establish and 
maintain standards and processes for the regulation of nursing within 
Australia. However, the ANC has no legal authority to provide any individual with registration as a nurse. It is a legal requirement that nurses 
must be registered or enrolled with the registration authority in the state or 
territory in which they intend to practise. For example, an individual wishing to practise as a nurse in New South Wales must be registered with the New 
South Wales Nurses Registration Board as required by the Nurses Act 1991 
(NSW) . 
 
Partially-regulated professions 
12. Individuals wishing to practise a partially-regulated profession in Australia must be registered 
with the appropriate registration or licensing board of the state or territory in which they wish to practise where such legal obligations exist. A pr ofessional body exists to determine and maintain 
standards and processes for the regulation of the profession, and employment may require 
demonstration of eligibility for memb ership of the key professional body. 
13. Alternatively, there may be statutory requi rements under Commonwealth law that affect 
some, but not all, occupations within the profession. 
14. Partially-regulated professions include: 
• accountancy (some professional activities regulated); 
• engineering (registration required in the State of Queensland; some professional 
activities regulated); 
• medical radiation science (regulated in some state/territory jurisdictions); 
• occupational therapy (regulated in so me state/territory jurisdictions); 
• podiatry (regulated in some state/territory jurisdictions); 
• speech pathology (regulated in some state/territory jurisdictions); 
• surveying (regulated in some stat e/territory jurisdictions);  and 
• teaching (regulated in some st ate/territory jurisdictions). 
 
Example:  accountancy 
 
The accounting profession is regulated by several bodies. At a professional level they are CPA Australia and the In stitute of Chartered Accountants in 
Australia (ICAA). The National Institute of Accountants (NIA) represents 
the profession at the technical and associate professional level. Each body has its own requirements for a variety of membership levels, dependent on 
educational qualifications and rele vant professional experience. CPA S/WPDR/W/28 
Page 4 
 
 
 Australia and ICAA have a process for joint accreditation of many 
accounting degree programs in Australia. 
 
Accountants working for companies or  other organisations are generally 
expected to be members, or eligib le for membership, of a professional 
accounting body. Membership of CPA Australia, ICAA, or NIA thus 
enhances employment prospects, but is undertaken on a voluntary basis, as 
there is generally no legal requirement  for accountants to be registered in 
Australia. However, some specialist a ccountants, such as company auditors, 
registered tax agents, liquidators an d financial advisers, are subject to 
Commonwealth statutory requirements. For example, company auditors have certain rights to information and certain reporting responsibilities under the 
Corporations Act 2001 (Cwlth) . 
 
Example:   engineering 
 
Engineers must be registered in Qu eensland, but there are no registration 
requirements in other jurisdictions. Ho wever, some professional engineering 
activities are regulated. For example, th e Building Code of Australia (BCA) 
is produced and maintained by the Australian Building Codes Board on behalf of the Australian Government and state and territory governments. 
The BCA has been given the status of building regulations by all states and 
territories. A certificate from a professional engineer is one form of evidence by which a building approval aut hority can assess whether a building 
solution complies with the BCA. 
 
Engineers Australia (EA) is the professional body that establishes the 
standards used for the recognition of professional engineers in Australia by setting requirements for the accreditation of engineering education and the 
competency standards necessary for the various occupational categories 
within the profession. Membership of  a professional engineering body or 
entry on the industry registers maintained by the National Engineering 
Registration Board are not necessary to practice as an engineer in Australia, 
but may enhance employment prospects. 
 
Self-regulated professions 
15. Individuals wishing to practise a self-regulated profession do not require registration in any 
jurisdiction of Australia. Each professional body determines and maintains standards and processes 
for the regulation of the occupation. Employers genera lly require prospective staff to be eligible for 
membership of the relevant professional body. 
16. Professional bodies for the self-regulating professions have a high degree of autonomy and 
establish their own requirements for membership. A basic requirement for membership is that the 
applicant holds the appropriate academic qualification. 
17. Australian universities liaise with professiona l bodies where appropriate when developing 
new courses of study or changing exis ting courses, in order to ensure that graduates will be eligible to 
practise their profession and/or for membersh ip of the relevant professional body.  
18. Self-regulated professions include: 
• dietetics;  S/WPDR/W/28 
 Page 5 
 
 
 • librarianship;  
• medical laboratory science; 
• social work; 
• translating & interpreting;  and 
• welfare work. 
 
Example:   dietetics 
 
For most employment and professional situations dieticians are expected to 
have qualifications that meet the elig ibility requirements for membership of 
the Dieticians Association of Australia (DAA) and accreditation as an Accredited Practising Die titian (APD).  The APD program is conducted by 
DAA as a means of self-regulation by th e profession to obtain and maintain 
high levels of professional practice. 
 
Example: translating & interpreting 
 
The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters 
(NAATI) is the body responsible for the accreditation of translators and 
interpreters in Australia. NAATI accreditation is the only qualification officially accepted for the profession of translating and interpreting in 
Australia. Accreditation by NAATI usually enhances employment prospects. 
However, the national association for the profession is the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT). 
 
 
Unregulated professions 
19. Individuals wishing to practise an unregulated  profession do not require  registration in any 
jurisdiction of Australia. Employers make their own assessment of a prospective employee's qualifications and experience. Professional bodies may exist, but do not set and maintain standards 
and processes for the regulation of the occupation. 
20. Unregulated professions include: 
• information and communications technology (ICT);  and 
• management. 
 
Example:  ICT professional 
 
The ICT profession is not regulated by law and there are no formal minimum 
requirements for employment. Employers generally make their own 
assessment of a prospective employee's qualifications and experience, 
although membership of a professional body is given preference by some employers. The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is the major body for 
ICT professionals in Australia, but has no role in regulating the profession 
within Australia.  
Mutual Recognition 
21. There are various means by which mutual rec ognition of professional qualifications and skills 
can be established between different jurisdic tions. These agreements can take the form of: S/WPDR/W/28 
Page 6 
 
 
 • treaties - government-to-government agreements, the terms of which are binding on both 
parties;  or 
• non-treaty agreements - government-to-government  agreements, which indicate the intent 
and goodwill of the parties but do not bind them to any action. 
• Agreements – established between professi onal bodies without the force of law. 
 
22. Difficulties can arise with nomenclature; for ex ample, an agreement may be a treaty even 
though it is not named as such. Non-treaty agreemen ts can have a wide variety of names. Some 
agreements established by prof essional bodies may have names similar to those of government-to-
government agreements, but are private agreements without the force of law. 
23. A Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) streamlines recognition of professional 
qualifications and skills between two or more jurisd ictions providing an impetus for the harmonisation 
of standards and reducing differences in registrati on requirements. MRAs can be established between 
governments, between professional bodies, or between both. Where MRAs are entered into by professional bodies, they are private agreements without the force of law. 
Australian Government MRA and TTMRA  
 
24. Australia's Mutual Recognition Agreement (M RA), which commenced operation on 1 March 
1993, provides that if a person is registered or li censed to practise an occ upation in one Australian 
state or territory, he or she is eligible for regi stration in an equivalent occupation in any other 
participating state or territory without the need to undergo further assessment of qualifications or 
experience, though registration authorities may impose conditions on registration to achieve 
equivalence. The terms of this agreement were subsequently implemented by legislation in all 
Australian jurisdictions. The Trans-Tasman Mu tual Recognition Arrangement (TTMRA), which 
commenced operation on 1 May 1998, extended this arrangement to New Zealand.  
Professional bodies' MRAs 
25. The negotiation of MRAs requires a detailed knowledge of the education and competency 
standards, experience, and legi slative and other requirements for independent practice in the 
profession concerned in Australia. The ability to make  such judgements rests with the registration 
authorities in the Australian system. Australia n professional bodies have historically exercised 
considerable autonomy in entering into MRAs. 
Role of the Australian Government in concluding MRAs between Australian and 
overseas professional bodies 
26. The Australian Government supports the deve lopment of MRAs by professional bodies. It 
encourages the adoption of fair and transpar ent assessing arrangements and facilitates mutual 
recognition arrangements and mobility frameworks (s uch as APEC Engineer and APEC Architect – 
see below) by which countries or economies agree to substantially or wholly exempt each other's professionals from meeting the usual requirements to practise. 
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (A PEC) professional recognition projects 
(i)  APEC Engineer 
 
27. The APEC Human Resources Development Wo rking Group Steering Committee for mutual 
recognition of professional engineers developed the initiative for the APEC Engineer Register over 
the period 1997 – 1998.  The APEC Engineer Registers was launched in 2000.  S/WPDR/W/28 
 Page 7 
 
 
 28. The Register has been established to recogni se the equivalencies in the qualifications and 
experience of practising professional engineers in participating economies. It is the aim of the 
Register that registered engineers will be exempt  from further assessment when practising in any of 
the participating economies. 
29. The APEC Engineer Manual, published in 2000,  foreshadows that the multilateral APEC 
Engineer framework will be bolstered by full b ilateral mutual recognition arrangements. These are 
now being developed, with the intention that they  use a uniform format. In October 2003, Engineers 
Australia signed the Framework to Facilitate Mobility for Mu tual Recognition of Registered Licensed 
Engineers  with the Institution of Professional Engin eers Japan. AEI-National Office of Overseas 
Skills Recognition (NOOSR), the Australian Governme nt's national expert and coordinating body on 
overseas skills assessments and recognition, was ve ry supportive of this process and provided 
financial assistance.  
(ii)  APEC Architect 
 
30. Participating economies are working to estab lish a mechanism to facilitate mobility for 
architects for the provision of professional architectural services in participating APEC economies. 
This will be achieved through the identification of agreed common elements in the education, training 
and assessment of architects qualified to be register ed to provide professional architectural services in 
the home economy. 
31. The procedure will lead to the identification of  APEC Architects and the establishment of an 
APEC Architect Register. Host economies might  choose to adopt special requirements for 
architectural practice, but it is intended that an y such requirements should be fully transparent. 
Subject to these requirements being met, the fulf ilment of the APEC Architect procedure would 
facilitate mobility for those listed on the Register to provide professional architectural services in the 
participating economies. 
Trade Agreements 
32. Trade agreements are recognized internationa lly as an opportunity to facilitate bilateral 
recognition of professional qualifications between economies. 
(i)  Japan 
 
33. The Australia-Japan Trade and Economic Framework, which is not a free trade agreement, 
was signed on 17 July 2003. It recognises the mutu al recognition of professional qualifications as an 
area of cooperation: 
A forward work program on mutual recognition of  professional qualifications consistent with 
GATS Article VII in the area of professional qualific ations, beginning with priorities such as in 
specific engineering categories. Both countries in tend to conclude prom ptly a framework for 
mutual recognition covering the areas of mec hanical, electrical and chemical engineers. 
 34. A Bilateral Framework to Facilitate Mobility fo r Mutual Recognition of Registered Licensed 
Engineers between Australia and Japan was signed in Tokyo on 1 October 2003 by the Presidents of Engineers Australia, the National Engineering Regist ration Board of Australia and the Institution of 
Professional Engineers Japan. S/WPDR/W/28 
Page 8 
 
 
 (ii)  New Zealand 
 35. The Closer Economic Relations (CER) Agre ement between Australia and New Zealand 
entered into force in 1983, and has had its scope broadened on three occasions since then. The 1998 
Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement  (TTMRA) was established under the CER. 
(iii)  Singapore 
 
36. The Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement (S AFTA) entered into force on 28 July 2003. 
Article 23 (Recognition) reads: 
. For the purposes of the fulfilment of its standards or criteria for the authorisation, licensing or 
certification of services suppliers, a Party may re cognise the education or experience obtained, 
requirements met, or licenses or certifica tions granted in the other Party.  
 
. The Parties shall encourage their relevant co mpetent bodies to enter into negotiations on 
recognition of professional qualifications and/or reg istration procedures with a view to the 
achievement of early outcomes.  
 
(iv)  USA 
 
37. The Cross-Border Trade in Services chap ter of the Australia-United States Free Trade 
Agreement (AUSFTA), which is based on the US-S ingapore FTA, provides for the establishment of a 
Working Group on Professional Services to facilitate the development of mutually acceptable standards and criteria for licensing and certificati on of professional services suppliers and to provide 
recommendations on mutual recognition in relation to professional services. The agreed text of the 
AUSFTA was concluded on 8 February  2004, and both Governments are working towards entry into 
force on 1 January 2005. 
 
__________