Section 35(1)(c) of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act (National Act; requires the newly formed Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) "to develop or approve standards, codes and guidelines". In 2010 the PsyBA decided to initially adopt the Australian Psychological Society's (APS) Code of Ethics (Code; and develop a new code in the future with the involvement of key stakeholders without deciding, for instance, what the nature of this could code will be. The PsyBA now has to decide exactly how it will proceed in future.My aim in this article is to examine the options available to the PsyBA by exploring the definition and function of codes, presenting a history of the APS Code and considering approaches that had been followed in Europe, Israel, New Zealand and South Africa.Keywords: code of ethics, code of practice, ethical principles, minimum behavioral standards A code for Australian psychologists 3
The Development of an Australian Code for PsychologistsThe Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) is one of ten national health practitioner boards that have been established as part of the national registration and accreditation scheme for Australian health practitioners under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act (National Act; 2009). Section (s)3(2)(a) of the National Act stipulates that the primary objective of the boards is to provide protection to the public by ensuring that only practitioners who are suitably trained and qualified to practice in a competent and ethical manner are registered to do so. In s4 the legislator describes the functions of the national boards and specify that they must be exercised in accordance with the guiding principles set out in s3(3). The guiding principle that is particularly relevant for this article is s3(3)(a) which provides that boards must "operate in a transparent, accountable, efficient and effective way". The function of the PsyBA that is most pertinent is set out in s35(1)(c) which authorizes it to "develop or approve standards, codes and guidelines". After consultation during the early part of 2010 the PsyBA "decided to initially adopt the Australian Psychological Society's (APS) Code of Ethics (Code) and develop a new code in the future with the involvement of key stakeholders" (PsyBA, 2010a, p. 2). The PsyBA now has to decide exactly how it will proceed in future. My aim in this article is to examine the options available to the PsyBA by exploring the definition and function of codes, presenting a history of the APS Code and considering approaches that had been followed in Europe, Israel, New Zealand and South Africa. that is, to be used by registrants as a guide to self-regulation the PsyBA to regulate registrants.
Definition and function of CodesOther than these two functions, scholars believe that codes have numerous other functions. To start with, codes are used to educate psychologists (e.g., Allan, 2010a;Keith-Spiegel, 1994) regarding the ethical principles and standards of the profession taking into account the particular c...