Chiropractors, Homeopaths and Allied Professions Amendment Bill: briefing

Meeting report

HEALTH PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
8 February 2000
CHIROPRACTORS, HOMEOPATHS AND ALLIED HEALTH SERVICE PROFESSIONS AMENDMENT BILL

The Department of Health presented a background report on the establishment of the Chiropractors, Homeopaths and Allied Health Service Professions Interim Council, and provided details on the numbers of professionals within the various sectors who had applied to the council for membership.

The Interim Council was established to make recommendations to the Minister on the constitution of a new council. A request was made to the committee members that the term of the Interim Council be extended for a further 12 months. The extension would need to be retrospectively effective as the Interim Council's terms of office expired on 12 February 1999. There were objections from committee members that the Department had allowed the Interim Council to function without any statutory authority since February 1999 and they queried the legal validity of decisions made by the council.

A representative from the State Law Advisors was called in to advise the Committee on whether it was legally sound to extend the services of the council retrospectively and whether the decisions made by the council during the period February 1999 to February 2000 would be legally binding. The advisor felt that this would not be problematic but asked the Committee for further time to produce a more extensive report. The Committee did not vote on the request for extension as the request needed to be made jointly to the NA and NCOP. A meeting was scheduled for later in February for this purpose.