Page 6179 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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MR BERRY: That was a very good question by Ms Maher. It was a question that I would have expected during the period of the Alliance Government. I suspect, though, that it was not asked then because, as I seem to recall, many of the questions then were of a dorothy dix nature, and one does not ask a dorothy dixer if one does not know the answer. Of course, the issue of registration of psychologists has been around for - - -
Mr Humphries: Do you know the answer, Minister? You are still in the index, so obviously not.
MR BERRY: It is not in the index, as a matter of fact. The registration of psychologists, or the absence of it, has been around for longer than this Assembly. I agree with Ms Maher. I think there ought to be some sort of professional standing in the ACT to ensure that psychologists are accredited in some way and that the quality of service that people provide is up to a given standard. At the moment I understand that I could go out or you could go out and practise. I will not need to, because I think I am going to be elected next time; but you might wish to contemplate whether you might like to become a psychologist after the next election. Under the current law, ridiculous though it might seem, it is possible for anybody to hang up a shingle and call himself a psychologist.
Registration of psychologists is a priority for this Government; but it is also a priority for the Federal Government in the context of the Premiers Conference, where Federal accreditation arrangements are being examined. The difficulty in the ACT is that the number of psychologists is not high. As the respective governments have endorsed the position of full cost recovery, one has to keep in mind, when coming to a decision in relation to these matters, that the costs for individual boards could exceed the costs which individual professionals might wish to pay.
Some groups are very small. Once you adopt the standard for one of the groups that are outstanding now, such as psychologists, you run into the difficulty that a very small group, say podiatrists, might expect some sort of registration board but their costs would be significantly higher. It is something that I have been looking at in the six or seven months that Labor has been in government.
Mr Collaery: It has been lying on the couch for too long.
MR BERRY: I agree with Mr Collaery that it has been too long. But I have to say to Mr Collaery that he had 18 months to do something about it and he did nothing. The problem was - - -
Mr Collaery: I have drawn up a private members' Bill. I will bring it down in a minute. I will give it to you this afternoon. How is that?
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