Psychological Practice Bill 2006 / Psychological Tests

Following the recent letter from the Minister of Health (dated 1 August 2007) to all registered psychologists, and emails circulated by the Australian Psychological Society (SA Branch) to its members, the Board wishes to outline its position with regard to the proposed amendments to the Bill which were made in the Legislative Council.

To view the Bill, the proposed amendments and the Board's comments, please go to the Board - Legislation section of this website.

The Board supports that it should have a role in the scrutiny of psychometric testing to ensure testing is properly administered and interpreted by registered psychologists or by students/trainee psychologists under supervision.

The Board however objects to the amendment as proposed. The amendment will incur significant costs as the Board will have to establish a separate administrative system of approving persons (other than registered practitioners), establish processes for identifying appropriate qualifications for approved persons, identifying those tests to be prescribed under the Regulations, as well as processes for dealing with contraventions and revocation of approvals.

The Board’s preferred amendment, which is administratively less cumbersome and less expensive to implement, was communicated to the Minister on 26 April 2007. This was to:

  1. Recognise/approve psychological test suppliers so that those tests restricted to registered psychologists by the suppliers be available only to registered psychologists in the State. Use of these tests by unregistered persons would be an offence under the Act. Where a psychological test can also be used by another professional (as determined by the test supplier) these professionals should be exempt from this restriction as well as students/trainees under supervision of a psychologist. The estimated cost would be approximately $45 per registrant per annual renewal.
    OR
  2. In accordance with Section 35 of the Bill, include the word “psychometric” as a prescribed word in the Regulations. This would prohibit any person not registered holding out or advertising that they conduct psychological or psychometric testing.
A likely amendment to the Bill could be:

Restriction on administration and interpretation of certain psychological tests

A person must not personally administer or interpret a psychological test restricted to psychologists by approved test suppliers unless:
  1. the person is a psychologist; or
  2. the person is a student psychologist under the direct supervision of a psychologist; or
  3. the person is a trainee psychologist under an approved program of supervision; or
  4. the person is also recognised by the approved test supplier to administer or interpret the psychological test.
Maximum Penalty - $50,000


With the Board having to approve test suppliers, this would ensure that proper standards and controls are maintained by the test suppliers.

If none of the above could be achieved the Board agrees with the recommendation contained in a combined submission in March 2007 from the Australian Psychological Society, the Council of Psychologists Registration Boards (Australasia), and the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council to the Council of Australian Governments Health Working Group that “a future national psychology entity (Board) should set national standards for access to and use of psychological tests”. This would be under the proposed National Registration and Accreditation Scheme due to be operational in 1-2 years time.

The Board would welcome a joint meeting with the Minister and professional associations to progress the matter further.

The full letter sent to the Minister on 26 April 2007 can be downloaded by clicking on the following link:

Download the Board's letter to the Minister for Health [5 pages]