Legal implications for complementary medicine practitioners of the New South Wales Health Practitioner Code of Conduct

A number of recent cases in Australia of unprofessional practices by unregistered health practitioners resulting in injury to consumers have revealed the difficulty faced by regulators in not having the discipline provided by a registration board. New South Wales, in enacting a Code of Conduct for Unregistered Health Practitioners under the Public Health Act 2010 (NSW), has applied negative licencing to specify the expectations for professional practice for unregistered health practitioners who are non-compliant with the provision of this Code. If applied sensitively to legitimate practice, this form of regulation will provide cost-effective and not unduly restrictive regulation. South Australia has now applied a similar Code. This form of regulation is of national significance as it is one regulatory option currently being considered at a national level.