The employment of teachers in government schools is governed by the Teaching Services Act 1980, and that of teachers in non-government schools by contract with either the central authority or board conducting the school. However non-government schools need to comply with the requirements of the Education Act 1990 (pages 1-3). Over the years, the introduction of a teacher registration system has been canvassed, at both the federal (pages 10-17) and state level (pages 21-30). No such system has been put in place in New South Wales to date. The most recent attempt was in late 1998 with the introduction of the Teaching Standards Bill (pages 30-40). It would appear that while the majority of stakeholders appeared to support the arguments behind teacher registration, the negotiations on how the proposal would actually be implemented are stalled (pages 3-6). Approaches taken in other Australian jurisdictions (pages 17-20) and overseas (pages 6-10) are discussed.