Health professionals who take six months of maternity or carer’s leave will get a 30% discount on their registration fees, starting July 2025.
Doctors who go on extended maternity, paternity, disability or carer’s leave will no longer have to pay the full AHPRA registration fee – but their discount won’t be commensurate with their amount of leave, either.
The health practitioner regulator announced today that, from 1 July 2025, practitioners who take at least six months of leave during a registration year on the grounds of a protected attribute will be able to access a 30% rebate for their registration renewal fee.
This means that, even though they will be working for less than half of a registration period, they will still pay more than half of the yearly fee.
“We have listened to the sector and the concerns of practitioners and today is an important first step to address the issues of fee relief for those on parental leave,” outgoing AHPRA CEO Martin Fletcher said.
It’s unclear if there will be scope for practitioners whose extended leave falls over two registration periods (e.g. three months in the 2025 period and three months in the 2026 period) to be able to access the fee rebate.
For doctors in every jurisdiction bar NSW, the full yearly registration fee is $1027; after the rebate is applied, clinicians who have taken extended leave will pay $719 in total.
In NSW, where the total fee is $956, the 30% rebate will bring registration down to $669.
The Medical Board of Australia, which falls under AHPRA, increased annual registration fees by $32 in 2024.
At 3.2%, this increase was technically less than the inflation rate of 4.1%.
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“At a time of cost-of-living pressures, we recognise the current fee arrangements can have a big impact on practitioners who are parents or are pregnant, and those who have disability or carer responsibilities, as they may be required to take extended leave away from practice,” Mr Fletcher said.
Of the 15 national boards, four opted to freeze renewal fees in 2024.
After medicine, the second-most expensive registration fee is for dentistry at $785, followed by Chinese medicine at $512.
The cheapest registration fees are for occupational therapists, who pay $127 a year.
AHPRA will also be conducting a wider review of pro-rata fees in 2025, with Mr Fletcher saying the regulator was “keen to identify other areas where [it] can streamline fee arrangements”.
