Garanovic v Queensland Nursing Council

DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Garanovic v Queensland Nursing Council [2003] QDC 416

PARTIES:

NEDZAD GARANOVIC

Appellant

v

QUEENSLAND NURSING COUNCIL

Respondent

FILE NO/S:

BD2275/2003

DIVISION:

PROCEEDING:

Appeal

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court, Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

19 November 2003

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

6 November 2003

JUDGE:

McGill DCJ

ORDER:

Appeal dismissed.

CATCHWORDS:

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – Appeal from administrative authority – Nursing Council – recognition of foreign training qualification – whether decision shown to be wrong.

Nursing Act 1992 s 54(2).

COUNSEL:

The appellant appeared in person
P D Lane for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

The appellant was not represented
O’Shea Corser & Wadley for the respondent

1. On 17 May 2002 the appellant applied to the respondent for registration under the Nursing Act 1992 (“the Act”) as a registered nurse. On 7 December 2002 the respondent decided to reject the application. That decision and the reasons for it were communicated to the appellant by a letter of 12 December 2002.[1]  There was then further correspondence from the appellant in which he sought reconsideration, and in March 2003 the respondent reconsidered and affirmed its decision.  Notice of that and the reasons for it were set out in a letter to the appellant of 11 March 2003.[2] Subsequently the appellant appealed to the District Court against the decision of the respondent to refuse his registration as a registered nurse, pursuant to s 137 of the Act. The appeal is by way of rehearing on the material before the Council: s 137(3)(c).[3]  Briefly, the respondent’s position was that the appellant’s training as a nurse was not sufficient to justify registration as a registered nurse without his first undergoing further training.

   [1]Affidavit of Fox-Young filed 18 August 2003, Exhibit SFY24.

   [2]Affidavit of Fox-Young, Exhibit SFY31.

   [3]The nature of the appeal was considered in more detail in Barry v Queensland Nursing Council [2001] QDC 146.

Background to the decision

1. The appellant was born on 17 October 1961 in Zenica[4] in what was then Yugoslavia and received training in Yugoslavia which qualified him to work as a nurse in that country.[5]  He subsequently resided for a time in Germany where he worked as a nurse and, after completing some preliminary period which presumably involved some supervision and may have involved some training, was on 25 July 1994 recognised in Germany as a krankenpfleger, which from the document he showed me has been translated as male nurse.  The German authorities have indicated that that qualification remains current so far as they are concerned, and indeed is of unlimited duration. 

   [4]Affidavit of Fox-Young Exhibit SFY3.

   [5]He was a medicinski tehnicar:  affidavit of the appellant filed 21 July 2003 para 12.

1. I do not know whether under the German system for regulation of nursing a krankenpfleger is the equivalent of a registered nurse under the Queensland system, as the appellant asserts.  The Queensland system recognises that a person may be registered as a registered nurse, enrolled as an enrolled nurse, authorised as a midwife or otherwise authorised to practice…