A national registration system for Australian architects is on track to be put in place pending the support of the State and Federal governments.

The registry will aim to serve consumers by ensuring that only architects who are suitably qualified are registered, whilst facilitating workforce mobility across Australia and 'reducing red tape and costs' for architects.

Under the proposed system of national registration, architects will have the opportunity at any time to practice in all states and territories simply by renewing their registration annually in their home state or territory.

The proposed national registration process is a joint initiative involving the architect registration boards around Australia and the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia (ACCA).

Gill Matthewson who writes for Archiparlour, recently articulated the problems with Australia's old system of counting architects as she set out to measure registered architects in Australia and encountered an array of problems.

In 2012, Matthewson wrote that one of the biggest issues standing in the way of finding out how many architects are operating in Australia is that there is more than one register.

"Architects are registered according to the Architects Act 1991, legislated in each state and territory. Each state register is separately maintained and statistics for each state are held in different ways. In addition, to be the signing architect in a state, you must be registered there as well as in your home state. As a result many architects are registered in a number of different states, and this is particularly common for architects that practice close to a state border," she wrote.

Image courtesy of Archiparlour

In August 2010 the Australian Government’s Productivity Commission’s Research Report Annual Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business: Business and Consumer Services included a recommendation that the Australian Government should work with state and territory governments to implement a national register for architects.

In July 2011 the AACA formed a Work Group to facilitate the implementation of a national registration system of registration for architects utilising the existing framework of Mutual Recognition across State and Territory borders by working with the State and Territory Architect Registration Boards.

Matthewson criticised this aspect of the national register because although it is an improved system, it still does not have the information on how many women architects there are and other information could be incorrect.

"The combined register of over 12,500 entries was still, however, not entirely accurate – it was only as good as the information provided by each state. Non-practising architects in Western Australia and Victoria were included, along with companies registered in South Australia and a handful of people from the Australian Capital Territory were listed more than once. Some people were also recorded as located overseas."

All Architect Registration Boards in Australia have agreed to work with the AACA towards achieving a national system for registration of practising architects based upon modification of current mutual recognition arrangements utilising the existing framework of state and territory registration authorities.

The AACA said the benefits of the register are:

All architects can benefit from a national registration process and to be known internationally as an Australian Architect.
Currently, there are around 14,000 architects on Architect Registers around the country. While the number of architects currently registered in more than one jurisdiction is relatively small the move to national registration looks to the future. The profession is increasingly mobile and electronic means of communication in the professional context is increasing.
Under the proposed system of national registration architects will have the opportunity at any time to practice in all states and territories simply be renewing their registration annually in their home jurisdiction (as determined by entry on the Australian Electoral Roll).

Architecture & Design Team

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