The APA will soon be releasing a white paper, Future of Physiotherapy in Australia—a 10-year vision policy paper.

Our white paper is a policy document that outlines the APA’s 10-year vision for a health system in which physiotherapy and physiotherapists will thrive and Australians will always have access to the physiotherapy services they need, wherever they are and whatever their personal circumstances.

It is addressed to funders and decision-makers who will influence the future of the health system.

‘White paper’ has a very specific meaning and is different from other ‘coloured’ papers, such as a green paper.

Green papers are documents that focus on a defined public policy issue and are released by governments as a means of initiating discussions and obtaining feedback from stakeholders.

While both white and green papers can include specific proposals or even offer policy solutions, the fundamental difference is that green papers are produced by governments to engender consultation and discussion.

White papers are also used to foster discussion and feedback, but they have a different purpose and are not always written by governments.

The term was initially employed to define a government- or politics-related document written with the objective of convincing the voting population about particular ideas.

White papers were often used to promote an agenda or to further the goals of a political campaign.

Over time, ‘white paper’ was appropriated by the advertising and marketing sector as a means to identify a sales or promotions opportunity.

In the modern Australian context, however, a white paper is an authoritative document that promotes discussion about issues or certain subjects and, most importantly, details proposed solutions for managing them.

Many of you will have heard about white papers in the media.

Then prime minister Julia Gillard released a landmark paper Australia in the Asian Century, which set the debate for how the country engages with Asia.

Defence white papers were issued in 1976, 1987, 1994, 2000, 2009, 2013 and 2015, all setting out different policy agendas (for example, The Defence of Australia; Defence 2000: Our Future Defence Force; Australia’s National Security: a Defence Update and Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030).

Here’s some trivia: the term ‘white paper’ came about when governments began to colour-code their documents and reports.

The colour code ‘white’ was used to refer to documents that the public could access.

More trivia: the term ‘red tape’ (in which so much health reform is bound up) comes from the colour of the ribbon used to bind legal and other official documents.

Describing bureaucratic delays as ‘red tape’ has its origins in the court of Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V (1500–1558), where administrative documents were bound in string, ribbon or cloth.

Later, documents that needed immediate attention were bound in red string or ribbon.

We also owe thanks to Charles Dickens for making the expression popular in David Copperfield: ‘Britannia, that unfortunate female, is always before me, like a trussed fowl: skewered through and through with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape.’

Back to white papers.

They are now issued as authoritative documents intended to inform governments and the public about a particular topic, combining expert knowledge and research in one document.

Most often, as the APA has done with Future of Physiotherapy, white papers point to specific solutions or recommendations based on an understanding of the issue, problem or decisions that need to be made.

You’ll see that the APA’s Future of Physiotherapy is a lengthy paper written in a particular style.

This conforms to the definition of white papers: ‘Due to a large amount of data and research, white papers are deep reads and tend to have a formal tone.’

The APA has produced a classic white paper—one that illustrates our knowledge and expertise through facts and evidence.

An important aspect of white papers is that the intent is to guide and inform readers concisely about a complex issue, in this case to present our thinking on the future of physiotherapy in Australia.

We have tried to make sure that readers understand our issues and to lead them through the problems and solutions.

The APA’s paper has another purpose—to lead discussion about the future of the profession.

The intended audience is governments, health departments, the allied health sector, the wider medical workforce and policymakers from all relevant fields.

According to one expert, a white paper should be ‘a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution.’

This is exactly what the APA has delivered.