27th May 12
Since January, the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia (CMBA) has been responsible for publishing the standards for registration with the CMBA. Professor Tzi Chiang Lin represented the FCMA in communicating concerns about the English Language Skills Registration Standard to the Federal government, State officials at different levels and Members of Parliament. He expressed dissatisfaction with the discrimination against applicants applying under the Grand-parenting arrangements on the basis of the English Language requirements. In total, 34 official letters from the FCMA were sent to the following persons: the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives; Federal Minister of Health; Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council; (AHWMC); The Office of Commonwealth Ombudsman; the Australian Human Rights Commission; the AHPRA; the CMBA; and the Departments of Health for all the states and territories.
On 1st February 2012, Prof. Lin met with the Executive officer of the CMBA, Ms Debra Gillick and Mr Caprackast, the Director of the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman. I explained the FCMA’s view regarding the English examination and requested that the registration policy be changed to exempt applicants from the requirement to demonstrate an IELTS level of 6 during the transition period. He then led a delegation of State representatives of the FCMA to meet the Speaker of the Federal Parliament in Canberra at the end of February, and at the early March I met with the Minister for Health of Victoria; Speaker of the House of Victoria and senior health officers in the Parliament of Victoria to express our concern.
In the CMBA’s Registration standard, applicants who complete their Chinese medicine education in the seven named English-speaking countries (where courses are delivered in English) are complying with the English standard automatically. However other applicants in another areas or countries are required to pass an English examination or can only be registered conditionally. A potential scenario is that a practitioner who has good English skills who does not have formal education in Chinese medicine but can demonstrate competency and length of practice could gain registration (no conditions) but a practitioner from a non-English speaking background who does have formal Chinese medicine qualifications may be given conditional registration if they do not achieve the required IELTS score. Most of the FCMA members and Prof Lin have expressed our strong condemnation of this ruling. After talking to the representatives of the Australian Human Rights Commission by phone on 10 May 2012 Prof Lin, on behalf of the FCMA, decided to complain formally to the AHPRA and the CMBA on behalf of the FCMA.