Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (National Student Ombudsman Levy) Bill 2026

The short answer

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (National Student Ombudsman Levy) Bill 2026

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (National Student Ombudsman Levy) Bill 2026 is the second of two government bills introduced in the House of Representatives in the sitting week of 7-10 September 2026 to move the running costs of the National Student Ombudsman onto higher education providers. The first, the National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026, creates the levy itself. This companion bill does the regulator's side of the job: it amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 to provide for the collection and administration of that levy, so that the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) becomes the body that collects the charge from registered providers. The design follows the standard cost recovery architecture for the sector. The amount each provider pays is not set in the bill; the method of calculation is to be specified in regulations after consultation with the sector, with the levy intended to be payable from next year. Penalties would apply for late payment, and failure to pay would be treated as a breach of a condition of registration, exposing a provider to enforcement action by the regulator. Individual college administrators may be liable for the levy if a provider's registration is cancelled. Students would continue to use the ombudsman free of charge. The bill was at introduction stage when this article was prepared: it had not been passed by both houses, had not received royal assent and had not commenced.

This is a federal system guide. State constitutions, parliaments and local-government laws can allocate comparable functions differently.

The useful question is not only “what is the rule?” but also “who administers it, which document controls it, and when might it change?” That distinction prevents an accurate general explanation from becoming wrong advice in a particular election, chamber or policy setting.

Evidence review

What the bill does

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (National Student Ombudsman Levy) Bill 2026 is a government bill introduced in the House of Representatives during the sitting week of 7-10 September 2026. According to the Minister for Education's published second reading material, it amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 to provide for the collection and administration of the levy established in the previous bill of the package — the National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026.

In other words, the bill is machinery rather than policy in the broad sense. The levy bill creates the charge and the obligation; this bill plugs the charge into the higher education regulatory system so that there is a body with the power to collect it, to keep records of who has paid, and to take steps when somebody has not. Because the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) is the regulator that already registers and conditions higher education providers, it is the natural collector of a sector-wide charge.

Like any bill, it must pass both houses of Parliament and receive royal assent before it becomes law, and it commences only on the date or dates its commencement provisions set. When this article was prepared the bill had been introduced only: no second reading vote, no passage, no assent and no commencement had been recorded.

Evidence review

Why a second bill is needed

The National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026 sets up the levy and states its purpose: recovering the cost of administering the National Student Ombudsman from the higher education sector rather than from the Commonwealth budget. A bill that merely imposes a levy would not, on its own, give the regulator the powers it needs to demand payment, assess what each provider owes, deal with late payment, or treat non-payment as a regulatory matter.

The companion bill supplies that side of the arrangement by amending the TEQSA Act. This is a common pattern in Australian Commonwealth law: one bill imposes a charge under the taxation power and a second bill confers the administrative and enforcement powers on the relevant regulator under its own Act. The two are designed to operate together once both have passed and commenced.

That split matters for anyone following the package. The status of one bill does not determine the status of the other, and the levy cannot be collected merely because the Levy Bill has been introduced. Both must complete their parliamentary passage, and the regulations that set the calculation method must be made, before any provider owes anything.

Evidence review

What has already been confirmed about the levy

Because the two bills are a package, the practical detail of the charge sits across both. Reporting by Times Higher Education on 11 September 2026, based on the Minister's second reading speech and the explanatory material, records that the legislation would transfer the approximately $11 million annual running cost of the National Student Ombudsman from the federal government to educational institutions under a cost recovery model that is yet to be finalised.

The method for calculating each provider's levy, payable from next year, is to be set out in regulations following consultation with the sector. That is why no university or college can yet know what it will be charged: the bill creates the power and the machinery, and the subordinate legislation will set the rate and the allocation.

The same reporting records the enforcement architecture: penalties will apply for late payment, and failure to pay will constitute a breach of a condition of registration, which may result in enforcement action by the higher education regulator. Individual college administrators will be liable for the levy if their registration is cancelled.

Evidence review

The ombudsman the levy would fund

The National Student Ombudsman was established in February 2025 as part of the 2024 Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education. It provides an independent, trauma-informed complaints and dispute resolution service for students who have problems with higher education providers, and it is free to students.

The Minister told Parliament that the service had received about 7,700 student contacts since its establishment and had resolved more than 6,000 of them. He said that before the ombudsman existed such complaints had to be made through a web of individual university complaint systems or state and territory ombudsmen, or in many cases were not made at all.

The government's stated rationale for the levy is that students should continue to access the ombudsman free of charge while the cost of providing the service is borne fairly by higher education providers. How that principle translates into dollar amounts for each provider depends entirely on the regulations still to be made.

Evidence review

Where this sits in the sector's cost debate

The levy adds to a growing list of regulatory costs borne by the higher education sector. Sector bodies have argued that providers already face a heavy and expanding compliance burden, and Universities Australia's feedback on the ombudsman's draft cost recovery material raised concerns about increases in regulatory charges faced by some universities.

The government's position is that the ombudsman is a valued service and that cost recovery is the fair way to keep it running. The Minister has pointed to the ombudsman's own survey finding that 80 per cent of higher education providers surveyed reported implementing systems and making service improvements following its advice.

Because the amount and distribution of the levy depend on regulations yet to be made, the practical impact on individual providers remains an open question. That is a normal consequence of a bill that sets up a charging and collection power and leaves the rate to subordinate legislation, but it also means the sector's engagement is likely to concentrate on the consultation stage rather than on the bill's text.

Evidence review

Enforcement through registration

The mechanism that gives the levy its teeth is the link to registration. Under the framework described in the explanatory material, a provider that does not pay is not merely in debt to the Commonwealth; it is in breach of a condition of its registration, which is the status that allows it to operate as a higher education provider and to enrol students.

That link is why the companion bill must amend the TEQSA Act rather than create a standalone collection regime. TEQSA already administers registration conditions and compliance, so routing the levy through that framework allows the regulator to use its existing powers — including enforcement action — in respect of unpaid amounts.

The explanatory material also indicates that individual college administrators may be liable if a provider's registration is cancelled, a provision of particular significance to small providers where liability rules can reach beyond the corporate entity to those responsible for running it.

Evidence review

What happens next

After introduction, a government bill normally proceeds to a second reading debate in the House of Representatives, then to consideration in detail, before being transmitted to the Senate, where a similar process follows. Either house may refer a bill to a committee for inquiry and report, and the timetable depends on the sitting calendar. The Parliament was next due to sit from 14 to 17 September 2026.

Once a bill passes both houses it requires royal assent from the Governor-General, and it commences on the date or dates set out in its commencement provisions, which may be later than assent. Even then, the levy regulations must still be made before any provider is charged.

At the time of writing this bill had been introduced but had not been passed, assented to or commenced. No provider owes any levy amount as a result of the bill's introduction, and readers should treat the Parliament of Australia bills register and the explanatory memorandum as the authoritative sources for the bill's text, progress and commencement.

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