Leading organisational psychologists have called for psychological assessments to form part of the pre-selection processes for political candidates in Australia.

Chairman of the Australian Human Resources Institute, Peter Wilson, said a range of objective assessments, similar to those used by corporations to appoint senior executives, would help political parties choose more competent candidates and leaders.

Voters deserve to know that their candidates have at least reached a minimum level of political competence, for example, whether Joe Hockey's or Tony Abbott's gaffes are examples of incompetence or just human error. Credit:Andrew Meares

"The parties are employers. They hire these people and it would be valuable for the parties to know more about their candidates," Mr Wilson said.

Objective assessments are used by a majority of ASX Top 100 companies to select the most competent executives and reduce the damage and costs caused by bad appointments.