Page 2430 - Week 08 - Thursday, 6 August 2015
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registrations of veterinary surgeons and seamlessly progressing any complaints and investigations which were made or commenced under the Health Professionals Act. In particular, the transitional arrangements will ensure that the current members of the board will see out their terms of appointment, whether appointed by me as minister or as elected members. This is, I believe, appropriate.
I turn to some of the points raised by Mr Hanson in his remarks today. Let me first address the issue of national recognition of veterinary registration. The government is aware of the requirements to implement changes to progress national recognition of veterinary registration as agreed by Australian states and territories. Changes to ACT legislation have not previously been made because of the particular characteristics of the ACT where practice registration for veterinary surgeons was tied to the generic legislation of health professionals.
In consulting with the ACT Veterinary Surgeons Board in preparation for this bill, I am advised that there were some related issues that the board wished to examine before committing to legislative change on this matter. Nonetheless, both the board and the government are committed to ensuring that the ACT works towards implementing changes that will promote national recognition of registered veterinary surgeons. The regulations under the new act, for example, will recognise interstate registration by providing a streamlined registration process for veterinary surgeons registered in other Australian jurisdictions. It will do this by reducing the paperwork and evidence needed to substantiate registration.
Those remarks about national recognition go to the specifics of the national scheme and why specific implementation has not been done. But they also go to some of the broader issues that Mr Hanson raised about other amendments that might be made to the regulation of veterinary surgeons in the ACT. I believe I made these comments in my introductory remarks, but certainly this is not the end of the road when it comes to work in this area. It is quite clear that what we are seeking to do is simply move, in a fairly basic way, out of the Health Professionals Act, which is now clearly outdated, to the creation of a standalone veterinary surgeons system.
I agree with Mr Hanson that there is further work to be done, but I took a deliberate decision to do this in a staged way. We need to move past what was quite a clunky situation where the vets were covered under something that was rather more generic. We have now taken the first step in improving the situation, in having dedicated legislation. There is room for further reform. That is where I am keen for the Veterinary Surgeons Board to play a role and to undertake further consultation. But I did form the view that to have done both in one step would have been rather more complicated and would have delayed taking this first step, a step that I believed needed to be taken as soon as possible.
I can assure members that further work does need to be done, and will be done. But today this was about creating a mechanism to ensure that vets have their occupational specific legislation and regulatory powers that are targeted to the profession. It heralds a new recognition of the veterinary surgeon profession in the ACT. It provides an appropriate avenue for complaints and a framework for investigation of occupational discipline. It will protect the public, users of veterinary services and animals.
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