General Council is the governing and supreme policy making body of the College, with branches in each State and Territory of Australia, and New Zealand.

The powers of General Council are defined in Articles 9-13 of the RANZCP Constitution. In accordance with the Constitution, General Council considers a wide range of issues in relation to:

• management of the business and affairs of the College
• conduct of training and examinations
• provision of educational activities
• promotion of research in the sciences related to the practice of psychiatry, and
• furtherance of the practice of psychiatry in the interests of psychiatrists, patients and the general community.

All Fellows of the College may seek to change policy or to initiate new policy through the State, Territory and National Branches, Boards, Committees, Faculties and Sections of the College.

Within the College, two Faculties and six Sections represent specialist aspects of psychiatry:

Faculties

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Psychiatry of Old Age

Sections

Addiction Psychiatry
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Forensic Psychiatry
Neuropsychiatry
Psychotherapy
Social and Cultural Psychiatry