Birth of the hydra-headed monster: a unique antipodean model of health workforce governance

This chapter explicates the multi-profession scheme in Australia that incorporates medical practitioners, nurses and twelve other professional groups.  It considers the origins and establishment of the National Scheme for the Registration and Accreditation of the Health Professions introduced in Australia in 2010, within the context of wider regulatory and public policy reforms and initiatives. The key structural aspects of the Scheme’s model of accountability to ministers and parliaments are analysed. It emphasises the extent to which the Scheme has been influenced by Australia’s federal system and the respective responsibilities of each layer of government. The chapter explains how governments in Australia, as represented by their Health Ministers, through the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council, have taken on the appearance of the mythical hydra-headed monster, concurrently a unitary and disparate form purposely constructed to act in the public interest in a unique antipodean model of health workforce governance.