Council Registrar

The Registrar is the primary point of contact for all applications, enquiries, requests and complaints. 

She can be contacted by email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phoning
+64 4 474 0747.

Clare Prendergast - Registrar

Who we are

The Council is made up of six health practitioners and two laypersons.

We operate on the principle of collective responsibility. Council members may have been nominated by an organisation, but do not represent that organisation at Council meetings. Council members are paid for their time carrying out Council work. The Council sets the payment rates. The following rates were set in February 2014:

Council Meetings:

Chairperson - $640.00 per day
Member - $525.00 per day

Fees for Council work other than Council meetings are:

Chairperson - $100.00 per hour
Member - $80.00 per hour

Who are the Osteopathic Council?

Council Members

• Martin Lambert  - Chair
• Tim Friedlander 
• Emma Fairs
• Lawrence Cartmell
• Lara Sanders
• Sue Ineson - Deputy Chair
• Janet Miller (lay person)
• Melinda Sweeney

Martin Lambert  - Chair

Martin holds a Masters of Osteopathy degree form Unitec and is currently in private practice in Auckland having previously worked in Blenheim and Whangarei. Martin has served on the Osteopathic Council since 2010.

Prior to undertaking his osteopathic training, Martin worked for the NZ Department of Labour in London for five years before returning home to enter the osteopathic programme at Unitec. While completing his studies, Martin served as student representative on the Unitec Osteopathic Programme Committee for three years and since being appointed to the Osteopathic Council has completed postgraduate papers in Healthcare Ethics at AUT.

Tim Friedlander - Deputy Chair

Tim Friedlander holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Osteopathy degree from Unitec. He works in private practice in Auckland at clinics in Waitakere and the North Shore.  Tim has strong ties to education, lecturing part-time in the undergraduate osteopathy programme at Unitec and with experience in e-learning and information technology.  His interest in pain science and management has led him to further post-graduate study at Otago University where he is pursuing a post-graduate Diploma in Health Science.

Emma Fairs 

Emma Fairs is a registered Osteopath who trained in the UK where she worked for two years before moving to New Zealand.  Emma has been working in Christchurch for the last 15 years, in her private practice; her main clinical focus has been the Osteopathic management of Obstetric and Paediatric patients.

Emma has been involved in the development of Osteopathy in NZ, both the regulation of the profession and the development of a training programme.  She was part of the NZQA panel that accredited the Masters Degree in Osteopathy at Unitec, Auckland; and for four years acted as one of the two Monitors for the supply of the Degree.  Between 1997 and 2008 she was an elected member of the Osteopathic Society of New Zealand (OSNZ) and the New Zealand Register of Osteopaths (NZRO) Committee, initially organising the supply of post-graduate education in NZ, and for the last four years in the position of OSNZ President.  Since resigning from the position of President, Emma has consulted for the OSNZ and the Osteopathic Council of New Zealand (OCNZ).

Committees: Education Committee, Registration Assessment & Examination Committee, Scope of Practice Working Group 

Lawrence Cartmell

 Lawrence graduated from Leeds University with a B.Sc (Hons) in 1978. He entered the osteopathic profession in 1984 after graduating from the British College of Naturopathy and Osteopathy (now British College of Osteopathic Medicine) in London. He practised in London until 1987 when he emigrated to Wellington, where he has been in private practice ever since.

Over the years Lawrence has been involved with the profession in a number of ways, initially as secretary to the New Zealand Register of Osteopaths, then as a Disciplinary Board member of the NZRO. In 2004 he was appointed by the Minister of Health to the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (as a practitioner member) under the HPCA Act 2003. He resigned from the Tribunal in 2014 after appointment to the OCNZ.

Lawrence has a special interest in rehabilitation in his private practice working to alleviate pain, improve function and empower patients to help themselves.

Committees: Finance and Audit (Chair), e-Portfolio

 Lara Sanders

Lara graduated from the Unitec osteopathy programme in 2014 and has been practising in Wellington. As one would hope for a graduate, Lara is very enthusiastic about osteopathy and happy to be involved in its operation and regulation in order to provide the best service to healthcare consumers in our community. Lara's upbringing and education in New Zealand allow her to feel comfortable working with this country's cultural nuances and increasingly diverse community, while her years of living internationally have given her perspective on how New Zealand operates within the global environment. She sees potential for the role of osteopathic medicine to grow and become an important part of integrated heathcare in New Zealand and hopes to facilitate this growth through her work in practice and with the Council.

 Sue Ineson

Sue is a ministerial lay member appointee to the Osteopathic Council.

Sue has worked in the regulation of professionals for the last 12 years, firstly as a consultant working both in New Zealand and overseas to advise regulatory boards on governance, management and organisational issues. 

Sue is also currently a board member of the Veterinary Council of New Zealand and she is a professional conduct committee member for several health regulatory bodies.

Prior to her work for the Medical Council she worked primarily in the voluntary sector in health, early childhood education, family planning advocacy and education and human rights.

Janet Miller

Kia ora koutou

I am the new lay person member on the Osteopathic Council and as such my role is to bring a patient’s perspective to the work of the Council. My two boys and I started seeing an osteopath when my boys were babies, however these days our visits are usually related to sporting injuries as they are now aged 7 and 11. Prior to having children I worked as a lawyer in the health sector so I have a good understanding of the environment in which the osteopathic profession operates.  

Melinda Sweeney

The Legislation

The Osteopathic Council operates under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA Act). The Act was passed on 18 September 2003. Most of the provisions of the Act came into effect on 18 September 2004. The HPCA Act replaces the profession-specific legislation that was in force before this date.

The purpose of the Act is to protect the health and safety of members of the public by providing for mechanisms to ensure that health practitioners are competent and fit to practise their professions.

The Act has regularised scopes of practice. Scopes of practice describe the contents of the profession. The scope of practice is required to be endorsed on each practitioner’s annual practising certificate. Every practitioner who practises must have a current practising certificate.

Section 7 is one of the key provisions of the Act. This section states that no person may claim to be practising a profession as a health practitioner of a particular kind or state or do anything that is calculated to suggest that the person practises or is willing to practise a profession as a health practitioner of that kind unless the person:

(a) is a health practitioner of that kind, and
(b) holds a current practising certificate as a health practitioner of that kind.

Health practitioners must not practise outside their authorised scope of practice. A copy of the Act can be viewed at www.legislation.govt.nz .

The Council's functions under the HPCA Act

Section 118 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 sets out the Council's functions:

• To authorise the registration of health practitioners under the Act, and to maintain registers.
• To consider applications for Annual Practising Certificates.
• To review and promote the competence of health practitioners.
• To recognise, accredit, and set programmes to ensure the ongoing competence of health practitioners.
• To receive and act on information from health practitioners, employers, and the Health and Disability Commissioner about the competence of health practitioners.
• To notify employers, the Accident Compensation Corporation, the Director-General of Health, and the Health and Disability Commissioner that the practice of a health practitioner may pose a risk of harm to the public.
• To consider the cases of health practitioners who may be unable to perform the functions required for the practice of the profession.
• To set standards of clinical competence, cultural competence, and ethical conduct to be observed by health practitioners of the profession.
• To liaise with other authorities appointed under the Act about matters of common interest.
• To promote education and training in the profession.
• To promote public awareness of the responsibilities of the authority.
• To exercise and perform any other functions, powers and duties that are conferred or imposed on it by or under the Act or any other enactment.

Accountability to Ministry of Health

• Each year the Council must give the Minister of Health an annual report, including the audited financial statements of the Council, to be presented to the House of Representatives by the Minister. Our most recent annual report can be viewed here.
• The Minister may also appoint an auditor to audit the records of the Council to determine whether the Council is complying, or has complied, with the provisions of the HPCA Act. A copy of the auditor's report must be presented to the House of Representatives by the Minister.
• The Minister may also ask the Council to supply statistical information relating the discharge of the functions of the authority.