The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) has begun adding past sexual misconduct findings to its public register of practitioners and register of cancelled practitioners.
The changes, part of National Law reforms aimed at improving transparency and patient safety, apply across Ahpra-regulated professions, including optometry. Ahpra said the first round of updates added information to 107 practitioners’ register entries, 86 of whom are on the cancelled practitioners list. The changes are retrospective and permanent, applying to tribunal decisions involving professional misconduct with a basis of sexual misconduct dating back to the start of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme in July 2010. While most tribunal decisions were already published online, register entries will now clearly state when sexual misconduct was involved.
The reforms stem from legislation passed in 2025, introducing new consumer protections, including making retaliation against a notifier a criminal offence and clarifying that non-disclosure agreements cannot prevent someone from notifying the regulator of concerns about a practitioner.
“Sexual misconduct not only breaches professional and ethical standards, it breaches the trust placed in practitioners by their patients, colleagues and community,” said Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner.
