Ngā kaitono o Ahitereiria | Australian applicants
If you are a registered in Australia as a midwife, you can practice in Aotearoa New Zealand under the Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement (TTMRA) between Australia and Aotearoa. The information below sets out what you need to know to have your registration approved so you can begin to practice here.
Applying for registration in Aotearoa
If you are registered to practise midwifery in Australia, you are entitled to seek registration as a midwife in Aotearoa.
To do this it is best if you collate all the information you require and then make your application. Please note that while we will allow you to upload documents you must send the certified physical copies to Te Tatau o the Whare Kahu | Midwifery Council (the Council) secretariat by post. Once documents are checked they are securely destroyed.
You will need to:
- Create an account
- provide evidence of entitlement to practise as a midwife by supplying a certified copy of a current practising certificate/registration or other document evidencing current entitlement to practice midwifery in Australia
- provide a certified copy of your Passport and a second identity document
- provide evidence of your original qualification if you were registered in another country before gaining registration in Australia
- provide a certified copy of your qualification
- pay the application fee
Police Certificates
You must provide a current police report from the Australian Federal Police and from every country where you have resided for a period of 12 months or more from the age of 18 years. The police report(s) in support of your application must be produced by the National Police Authority for the country, not a local or state office, and sent directly to the Council. This is completed through our provider Fit2Work.
- Click HERE to go to the Fit2Work website portal and request a police report from the Australian Federal Police.
- Click HERE to go to the Fit2Work website portal and request any other police report(s).
Fit2 Work will send the report(s) directly to the Council.
If Fit2Work is unable to provide a police report for a country you have resided for a period of 12 months or more from the age of 18 years, you will need to go to the New Zealand Immigration website to obtain a relevant police certificate that is of the standard acceptable to the Council. Applicants are advised that these police checks must be sent to the Council directly from the issuing authority.
If you do not follow this process the Council may not accept your evidence of police vetting.
During the application process, if declare you have resided in Aotearoa for 12 months or more from the age of 18 years , you will be prompted to download the Police Vetting Service Request and Consent Form for the New Zealand Police | Nga Pirihimana o Aotearoa. Complete the form and upload this with your application. (do not send it to the Police, the Council secretariat needs to do this).
Application process
When deciding whether to grant, postpone or refuse your applications, the Council makes inquiries of the authorities of jurisdictions in which you are registered, to make sure the information supplied is correct, and to establish whether there are any conditions or restrictions relating to your registration. The Council also makes inquiries regarding your activities in midwifery and any other relevant matters.
The Council may postpone or refuse to grant registration if:
- any of the statements or information in the notice required by section 19 of TTMRA are materially false or misleading
- any document or information required by section 19 is materially false or misleading
- any document required by section 19 has not been provided
- the Council determines that the occupation in which registration is sought is not an equivalent occupation, and that equivalence cannot be achieved by the imposition of conditions
- the circumstances of the applicant have materially changed
The Council may impose conditions on registration to:
- achieve equivalence of occupations or
- match conditions that apply to a person's Australian registration or
- implement the TTMRA principle in relation to occupations.
There is a right of review of the Council's decision to postpone or refuse registration. Once granted, registration takes effect as if it had been granted immediately on giving of the written notice.
An applicant is only entitled to practise midwifery in Aotearoa once they have a current New Zealand annual practising certificate (APC). This is a separate process to registration.
Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (the HPCAA)
Once registered, you will practise in Aotearoa under the requirements of the HPCAA. Its purpose is to protect the health and safety of members of the public by providing mechanisms to ensure that health practitioners are competent and fit to practise. The Council is required under the HPCAA to collect information about each practitioner, this includes:
- full name
- qualifications
- scope of practice and any change to the scope of practice
- whether the practitioner holds an annual practising certificate, or interim practising certificate
- any other matters the authority thinks fit e.g. address information.
Practitioners who are registered under TTMRA are, like all registered practitioners, required to apply for an APC through their MyMCANZ portal.
As part of the registration process, you will be asked to make declarations as to your competence. A scope of practice is endorsed on your APC in accordance with the HPCAA. The scope of practice describes the health services that midwives are permitted to perform.
Timing
You should allow around four weeks to apply for registration but it could take longer if you have not provided all the required documentation. Once registration is approved, you will then be able to apply for an APC online
How to apply for Registration
To being the registration process under the TTMRA, click HERE.
Information correct as at 16 December 2022