In only his second major public appearance since taking the reins in April, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) chief executive Justin Untersteiner outlined an ambitious ‘prevention-first’ vision for reform at the Australian Medical Association’s Colleges, Associations and Societies (CAS) meeting held in Canberra on 23 June 2025.
Untersteiner, the second CEO in Ahpra’s 15-year history, told delegates he had spent his first eight weeks ‘listening very carefully’ to staff, regulators and the wider profession, but that expectations for change were high. ‘At its core, I want Ahpra to be a listening, learning and responsive regulator,’ he said, framing the next decade as a critical window to modernise the National Scheme.
‘I am reminded as I meet with many across the professions and the communities that we serve that we live in a time of dramatic change,’ he said. The CEO acknowledged that geopolitical uncertainty and declining public trust in institutions were eroding confidence in health regulation, and said Ahpra must ‘lead the actions that are necessary to keep the public safe.’
‘Public safety is, and must remain, our number one priority.’
From reactive to preventive regulation
A centre-piece of Untersteiner’s speech was a promise to overhaul the notifications system, long criticised for being slow, opaque and procedurally fraught. ‘We must embrace new ways of regulating for the betterment of both practitioners and patients,’ he said.
He called for a ‘holistic review’ and ‘major transformation’ of the notifications system, with a focus on:
- timeliness and efficiency
- transparency with clear communication
- procedural fairness
- empathy and accessibility.
‘I am not convinced that the current notifications end-to-end system is achieving those important qualities, and as a result it is leading to a loss of confidence and a loss of trust in the scheme,’ Untersteiner said.
‘We need to pick the whole system up and rethink it. We need to better understand the experience of anyone interacting with our scheme. This is an important priority.’
He flagged expansion of the Rapid Regulatory Response Unit beyond pilot stages to tackle emerging risks before harm occurs. ‘We have started to trial some new ways of working in the Rapid Regulatory Response Unit – with a focus on prevention rather than response – but this needs to be expanded across all ways that we work and how we regulate,’ he explained.
“We need to pick the whole system up and rethink it. We need to better understand the experience of anyone interacting with our scheme. This is an important priority.”
‘I would like Ahpra to be seen as a leader in harm prevention. I want the professions and the community to have confidence in the work we are doing to improve the system – for their benefit.’
Technology, cosmetic medicine and new business models
Untersteiner warned that telehealth and artificial intelligence, while enabling care, present real dangers when misused. He cited inappropriate online prescribing of medicinal cannabis as a live telehealth case study, and warned of the risks of information bias, privacy risks and misleading and inappropriate health advice with the emergence of AI in healthcare.
He also pointed to the ‘explosion’ in cosmetic procedures and the difficulty of regulating services that ‘blur the line between consumer demand and patient need’.
‘We should assume that healthcare models and service delivery will change, and that will shift how we regulate the professions in the future,’ he said.
‘The community also expects more from us than ever. I believe the community expects that we are the first to identify new and emerging risks in the health system, such as risky business models, misconduct and other changes which are causing harm.
‘And they would also expect us to lead changes or action to address these risks. They want us to lead the actions that are necessary to keep the public safe.’
With a mandate to modernize, Untersteiner’s keynote signalled a regulator keen to shift from retrospective policing to proactive risk management. As Untersteiner himself said: ‘The question isn’t whether Ahpra and the scheme should reform, the question is what does reform look like and when do we get there.’
You can read Untersteiner’s full speech here.
