Compliance and recording

Recording a client phone call sits at the intersection of three regimes: your state's surveillance/listening-devices act, AHPRA's Shared Code of Conduct, and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Praxi ships templates and tooling for all three.

This page is a working summary, not legal advice. If you're unsure about your specific situation, consult your professional indemnity insurer or a privacy lawyer.

State recording-consent laws at a glance

Working summary (currency 2026-07-28) — not legal advice. Product SSOT: recording-jurisdiction.ts.

Jurisdiction	Consent model (statute)	Primary statute
New South Wales	All-party	Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW) s 7
Western Australia	All-party	Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) s 5(1)(b)
Victoria	Single-party (party may record; publish restricted)	Surveillance Devices Act 1999 (Vic) s 6 / s 11
Queensland	Single-party (party may record)	Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 (Qld) s 43
Northern Territory	Single-party	Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NT) s 11
South Australia	Mixed (consent OR protection of lawful interests)	Surveillance Devices Act 2016 (SA) s 4(2)(a)
Tasmania	Mixed (all principal parties OR s 5(3) limbs)	Listening Devices Act 1991 (Tas) s 5
ACT	Mixed (all principal parties OR s 4(3)(b) limbs)	Listening Devices Act 1992 (ACT) s 4(3)

• All-party — every principal party must consent before a party records a private conversation (NSW, WA — limited exceptions).
• Single-party — a party to the conversation may lawfully record under the Act’s party exception; communication or publication of the recording is still restricted (VIC s 11 is a key example).
• Mixed — recording may be lawful with all-party consent or another statutory limb (SA lawful interests; TAS s 5(3)). Explicit consent remains the safer clinical course.

Praxi product rule: always obtain and document consent before clinical recording, in every jurisdiction — Privacy Act APP 5 (notification) plus professional codes. Single-party statutes do not remove the product consent gate.

Note: the Shared Code applies to 12 National Boards (OT, physio, etc.). It does not apply to psychology, medical, nursing, or midwifery — those Boards have profession-specific codes. Psychologists should follow the PsyBA Code of Conduct.

The disclosure template library

Praxi ships nine ready-to-use AHPRA-aligned templates on the AI Receptionist Disclosures tab: one safest national master plus one per state/territory. Every template uses the same safest two-party body text:

This call may be recorded for clinical record-keeping and quality assurance. By staying on the line, you consent to the recording. To continue without recording, press 2 now.

The per-state variants share the same body and differ only in the metadata (consent model + statute citation). Pick the variant that matches your practice's jurisdiction so the citation footer demonstrates awareness.

You can adapt the wording: copy a template and use it in your voicemail greeting or your front-desk talk track.

How recording works in routing flows

Praxi's call handling does not record calls it forwards to your reception number. Voicemail is recorded: the caller chooses to leave a message after a greeting and a beep. If you want a recording disclosure before voicemail, put it in the voicemail step's greeting in your routing flow. A RECORD_CONSENT_GATE step may appear in older flows; it passes the call straight through.

PHI right-to-erasure cascade

When a client requests erasure under the Privacy Act, Praxi cascades through the call data:

1. All PhoneCall rows for the client are unlinked from the client record and their call metadata cleared. The row itself is retained for audit.
2. All PhoneCallRecording rows have their transcription text and recording link cleared, with the erasure date and request stamped on the row. The row itself is retained so the audit trail records that erasure occurred.
3. Same for PhoneVoicemail rows.

Recordings flagged with a legal hold are excluded from the erasure cascade and must be reviewed manually by a practice owner or ops administrator before deletion. Typical legal-hold triggers include AHPRA notifications under investigation, MBS fraud investigations, and court orders.

Retention defaults

Data	Default retention	Configurable per-org?
PhoneCall	7 years (audit)	No
PhoneCallRecording	7 years	Yes (phone.recording_retention_days)
PhoneVoicemail	90 days	Yes (phone.voicemail_retention_days)

Recordings can be deleted earlier per request (APPROVE-tier action delete_recording with a mandatory reason).

What changes for telehealth recordings

Telehealth (video) session recordings are governed by the same state regimes and require similar disclosure. The video module surfaces a different consent checkpoint at session start. Practice Phone recordings only apply to telephone calls.