A national system that two of the largest states are not in.

The NRSCH registers providers in three tiers set by scale and risk — broadly, Tier 1 for large developing providers, Tier 2 for mid-sized, Tier 3 for small. The tier determines both the performance requirements and the intensity of regulatory engagement, which is a sensible risk-based design and the same principle as aged care registration categories.

It was enacted first in New South Wales and adopted by other jurisdictions with the exception of Victoria and Western Australia, which run their own community housing registration systems.

So a provider operating nationally — which the larger ones do, and which Commonwealth programs like the Housing Australia Future Fund encourage them to do — is registered nationally for most of the country and separately in two states, against different codes, with different reporting.

That is the same pattern this database has now recorded in worker screening, in occupational licensing and in clinical credentialing: a national scheme with jurisdictions outside it, where the cost falls on the organisations and people operating across borders and the benefit of separateness accrues to nobody in particular. See Finish the national community housing register.