Ahpra’s own guidelines print the wrong penalty

The maximum penalty for an advertising breach under section 133 of the National Law is $60,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a body corporate.

Ahpra’s own advertising guidelines say it is $5,000 and $10,000.

Both statements accurately describe the documents. Only one of them is the law. Anyone quoting the guidelines PDF for a penalty figure publishes a number wrong by a factor of twelve.

What changed, and when

The penalties were raised by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022 (Queensland), Act 22 of 2022. Section 85 of that Act does exactly two things.

(2) Section 133(1), penalty, paragraph (a), ‘$5,000’— omit, insert— $60,000
(3) Section 133(1), penalty, paragraph (b), ‘$10,000’— omit, insert— $120,000

Amendment Act 2022 (Qld), Act 22 of 2022, s85, as made. Ahpra states that as of July 2024 the increased penalties applied in all jurisdictions, including Western Australia — but see below.

What the guidelines still say

The Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service were issued on 14 December 2020 and have not been revised since. They predate the amendment, and they still print the old figures in two places: section 1.4, headed “What penalties apply”, and Appendix 1, which reproduces section 133 in full.

Appendix 1 also reproduces section 133(3) as saying a “court or tribunal” may have regard to a guideline. The current section says “a court”.

Ahpra acknowledges the problem. Its own wording is that the guidelines “will be updated to include these changes when they are next reviewed”.

Why this is more than a typographical curiosity

For a practice, the consequence is direct. If your marketing partner assessed your advertising risk from the guidelines PDF, they priced your exposure at one twelfth of what it is.

And then there is Western Australia

Ahpra’s Advertising and the law page carries two footnotes. They contradict each other.

Where	What it says
Footnote 1	The increased penalties “now apply in all jurisdictions, including Western Australia”
Footnote 2	“In Western Australia different penalties apply. In the case of an individual the maximum penalty is $30,000, or in the case of a body corporate $60,000.”

We cannot resolve which is correct, and we are not going to guess. Western Australia enacts its own version of the National Law rather than automatically adopting Queensland amendments, which is a plausible explanation for a different figure surviving there.

What we can say with confidence is that a practice in Perth cannot rely on either footnote alone — and that anyone publishing a flat national figure has not read the page they are citing.

How to check this yourself in two minutes

1. Open the current Queensland consolidation of the National Law. Find section 133. Read the penalty line under subsection (1).
2. Open Ahpra’s advertising guidelines PDF. Read section 1.4 and Appendix 1.
3. Open Ahpra’s Advertising and the law page. Read both footnotes.

Three documents, one regulator, three different answers. Worth knowing before you accept anyone’s assessment of what an advertising breach would cost you.