AHPRA advertising for dietitians
Most advice about dietitian advertising gets it wrong in the first sentence. It assumes you are registered. You are not.
The correction
AHPRA's 15 National Boards regulate 16 registered health professions. Dietetics is not one of them. Nutrition is not one of them. So Section 133 of the National Law does not bind either title directly.
How we know
Queensland's Office of the Health Ombudsman lists the workers covered by the National Code of Conduct, a code written for people who are not registered with AHPRA. Its published examples name dietitians directly.
What applies instead
The National Code of Conduct for health care workers. The Dietitians Australia Code of Conduct. Standard 1.2.7 of the Food Standards Code. The Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. One sentence on a homepage can sit under all four at once.
The finding
Clause 4.2(a) of the Dietitians Australia code tells dietitians to comply with the National Law advertising requirements 'as if the dietitian were bound by the National Law'. The profession chose to hold itself to a law it does not sit under.
What changes
An APD who publishes a client success story has not breached the National Law. They have breached a by-law of the body that issues their credential. A regulator can fine you. A credentialing body can take the letters away.
The real gap
That code does not reach them at all. What still does is the National Code's efficacy clause, which bans advertising claims that cannot be substantiated, and the Australian Consumer Law.
The food itself
Under Standard 1.2.7, general level health claims can draw on more than 200 pre-approved food-health relationships. High level claims, the ones that name a serious disease, have 13 in Schedule 4. There is no self-substantiation route at that tier.
The verdict
If your site sells 'AHPRA compliant' as a selling point, it is claiming something that does not apply to your profession. It reads as authority and it is checkable, which is the worst combination a claim can have.
Tap through for the four-rulebook table, clause 4.2 in full, and the claims to delete from your site this week.