Hearing Australia is the current incarnation of the Acoustic Research Laboratory that was set up in 1942. Its initial purpose was the investigation of
noise on behalf of the
Australian Military during
World War II. After the war it helped those children whose hearing was affected by earlier
rubella outbreaks. The Commonwealth Department of Health (now the
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) took over the Laboratory and was renamed the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories, with the aim of providing hearing services for children and veterans. It was in 1973 renamed the National Acoustic Laboratories. The
Australian Hearing Services Act 1991 established it as Australian Hearing Services, a Commonwealth Government statutory authority. The name National Acoustic Laboratories was retained for its research division. When the
Department of Human Services (now Services Australia) was formed in 2004, the agency now known as Australian Hearing was moved into its portfolio. Although a statutory authority Hearing Australia "largely operates on a ‘for profit’ basis in competition with other hearing clinics". In 2018 Hearing Australia admitted to misleading and deceptive conduct. Hearing Australia admitted that it had engaged in misleading conduct by representing that Hearing Help is “unbiased” in circumstances where Hearing Help is owned and operated by Australian Hearing and one of its primary objectives is to increase consumer referrals to Australian Hearing. ==Eligibility criteria==