Assessment principles include ‘fairness’ and ‘flexibility’. These principles exist to encourage assessors to look for positive ways of including candidates and to ensure that they practice assessment to a high ethical standard. It is not only poor practice to exclude people by acting with bias or prejudice: it is also in most cases illegal. Each state has an anti-discrimination Act that prohibits the unfair treatment of people based on their cultural background, religion, gender, physical ability, sexual orientation, ethnicity and age. Assessors should endeavour to judge solely on the candidate’s ability to meet the criteria of the competency standards.