These high quality graduates are gaining experience and praise from the established practitioners that have taken on these young and enthusiastic Associates. Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Australia's first osteopathic university program has now been graduating osteopaths for over a decade and continues to produce outstanding practitioners. This program has been of such a high standard, it recently won a major award for quality. This journal for the profession continues to improve, and is now a fully fledged peer review journal, which members of the Association receive subscription as one of the many benefits of membership. Currently, both the New South Wales and the Queensland legislation concerning the registration of Osteopaths in these states is under review.
Reviews are always long processes and only occur every five years.
The profession has definitively communicated its wish for separate identity as a health discipline as is now the case with Victoria and Western Australia. The Queensland Bill has had its second reading at this time, however Queensland elections have delayed the third reading which would confirm the acceptance of a separate Osteopaths Act. The Association is now awaiting the resumption of Parliament so that the Act may be passed. The proposal for a separate Act in NSW is currently before the Health Minister and we are awaiting the final draft of the proposed Bill. This proposal has been supported by the Health Department.