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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3558 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

The impact of the amendment on the ACT government school system is that school counsellors who carry out work which is acknowledged as work usually performed by registered psychologists, such as psychometric testing, will need to be registered with the ACT Psychologists Board in order to carry out that work. The proposed amendment will enhance recognition of the professional nature of the work performed by our school counsellors.

All school counsellors working in government schools in the ACT have qualifications in the discipline of psychology and the great majority are either registered or eligible for registration. Currently, 40 of our school counsellors are registered, a further 13 are eligible for registration with the board and only 10 would not be eligible for registration. As Mr Moore points out, the act is an act of 1994 and there has been a very lengthy transition period for people to register or seek eligibility for registration. I think the effect of Mr Stanhope's amendment would merely be to further extend what has been a very lengthy period.

It is important to note that the work performed by school counsellors is mainly in the area of pastoral care and student welfare. Psychometric testing and other duties that can only be performed by a person registered with the board will continue to be met by those counsellors who are qualified to do so. Indeed, most of our school counsellors are.

There have been proposals by the AEU and, I think, the CPSU as well as Mr Stanhope to insert transitional provisions into the act. Those provisions would give those few school counsellors who are not eligible for recognition time to upgrade their qualifications and thus become eligible for recognition. The proposals are premised on the view that school counsellors perform the same sort of work as that performed by registered psychologists and that registration will be mandatory. Mr Speaker, that is not the case and it is simply not necessary to insert transitional provisions into the act.

It is not mandatory for our school counsellors to be registered in order to perform their jobs. School counsellors in ACT government schools have provided invaluable contributions to the system over the years and will continue to do so. Of course, I would encourage those school counsellors who wish to seek registration to do so, noting that only 10 are not eligible at present, but neither their jobs nor the service they provide to students will be compromised in any way if they choose not to.

The amendments proposed to the act extending the registration requirements to public sector employees who provide psychological services constitute a step in the right direction by enhancing the standards of service provided in the public system. That is the important issue. I think that the bill is fine as it stands and Mr Stanhope's amendment really is unnecessary.

MR RUGENDYKE (4.59): Mr Speaker, on the surface, the amendment appears to be fair. I think that it is unfortunate that the proponents of the amendment failed to mention that there has been a transition period, that it has been going on for some time, and that the purpose of the bill is to correct the situation.

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