National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026
Ms WITTY (Melbourne) (17:40): I rise to speak in support of the National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026 and the related legislation before the House. I am proud to represent Melbourne, one of the greatest education capitals of Australia. Our city is home to the finest universities in the country and institutions recognised around the world for the quality of their teaching, research and innovation.
Every year, students from across Australia and across the globe choose Melbourne as the place where they will study, grow new skills and build a future. Education changes lives. It remains one of the strongest predictors of future opportunity.
It creates pathways into secure work. It lifts incomes. It improves health outcomes.
It gives people more choice about the lives they want to lead. For our nation, it is one of the smartest investments we can make. That belief has always been central to the Labor movement.
Labor has always understood that talent and ability are everywhere in our community, but not everyone has the same opportunity. A young person's future should not be limited by how much money their parents make, where they grew up or whether they happen to know the right people. That commitment to expanding opportunity through education has shaped generations of Labor reform, and it continues to shape the work of the Albanese Labor government today.
The legislation before us sits within a much broader vision of Australia's education system, a vision that recognises our future prosperity depends on having a more educated, more skilled and more productive workforce. The Australian Universities Accord set out that challenge clearly. It found that, over coming decades, around 80 per cent of jobs will require some form of tertiary qualification, whether that is a university degree, a diploma or a certificate.
That presents an enormous opportunity, but it also creates enormous responsibility, because the decisions we make today about higher education will shape Australia's economic future for decades to come. That is why the Albanese government has not treated the universities accord as another report to be placed on a shelf. They have been getting on with implementing reform.
More than 30 of the accord's 47 recommendations have already been implemented in full or in part. Those reforms are helping make higher education more affordable, more accessible and better connected to Australia's future skills need. One of the first pieces of legislation passed by this parliament was the government's commitment to cut student debt by 20 per cent.
More than 3.2 million Australians have now benefited, and more than $16 billion in student debt has been wiped. An Australian with the average HELP debt of $27,600 saw $5,520 removed from their balance. That reform has been particularly significant in my electorate.
Melbourne has the highest number of people with student debt of any electorate in the country. Around 36,000 people in Melbourne are carrying HELP or VET student debt. They are young workers paying rent.
They are graduates starting careers. They are people trying to get ahead while managing the cost-of-living pressures facing households right across the country. The government has also made student repayments fairer.
The income threshold before repayments begin has increased to $67,000. Repayments are now calculated on an income above that threshold rather than a person's total income. For someone earning around $70,000 a year, that means about $1,300 less in repayments annually.
These changes recognise something many students and graduates have been telling us for years. Getting an education should create opportunity. It should not become a life-long financial burden.
In contrast to this fundamental idea, the conservative approach to education has always been easier on people who begin life with advantages. If your family can support you through university, unpaid placement may be manageable. If they can help with rent, rising student debt may feel less immediate.
If you know how powerful institutions work, pursuing a complaint may be less daunting. Government policy cannot be written only for people with money, confidence and connections. The answer of the three right-wing parties over there has for too often been that students should pay more, borrow more and manage the consequences themselves.
Labor rejects that narrow view. University education should not depend on the size of your parent's bank account. Safety should not depend on whether a provider chooses to listen.
Justice should not depend on whether a student has the power to fight an institution alone. Labor is prepared to widen opportunity. Those opposite remain far more comfortable defending a system that rewards the people already ahead.
The government has also introduced the Commonwealth prac payment. For years, students studying in professions we desperately need were often expected to complete hundreds of hours of mandatory placement work while receiving little or no income—teaching students, nursing students, midwifery students and social work students. Many were working long placement hours while still trying to pay rent, pay bills and keep food on the table.
The Commonwealth prac payment is helping to address that problem and is expecting to support around 68,000 eligible students completing placements each year. The government has also expanded access to higher education. New university hubs are opening across suburban and regional Australia.
Free enabling and bridging courses are helping students who may not have followed a traditional pathway into university. Demand-driven Commonwealth supported places are now available to First Nations students who achieve the marks required for entry. Additional university places are being allocated as we prepare for Australia's future workforce needs.
An additional 9,500 commencing university places have been allocated for 2026 alone. We have also established the Australian Territory Education Commission. Its role is to provide long-term stewardship of Australia's tertiary education system, helping ensure universities, TAFE, industry and governments are working towards a shared vision for the future.
All of these reforms have a common thread. They are focused on opening doors. They are focused on making sure people have genuine opportunities to develop their skills and contribute to their communities, and they recognise that building a stronger economy begins with investing in people.
But opening the door of a university is only part of the job. Students also need confidence in the institutions they attend. They need confidence that concerns will be taken seriously, that university processes are fair and that, if those processes fail, there is somewhere independent they can turn.
That brings me to the National Student Ombudsman, which commenced operations on 1 February 2025. It was established following recommendations of the Universities Accord and forms part of a broader effort to improve safety, accountability and student wellbeing across Australia's higher education sector. It provides students with access to free, independent and trauma-informed complaint services.
Students who have exhausted a provider's internal complaints process can take their concerns to the ombudsman and receive independent consideration and support. That service fills an important gap. Universities are large and complex institutions.
For many students, particularly those with difficult personal circumstances, pursuing a complaint can be intimidating. Students should never feel powerless when they're trying to seek a fair outcome. The National Student Ombudsman provides an avenue for review that is independent, accessible and focused on achieving practical outcomes.
The response from students demonstrates the value of the service. As of 31 August 2026, the National Student Ombudsman has received 7,690 student contacts and resolved 6,016. That level of demand tells us that students wanted an independent avenue and that students are using it.
The outcomes have also been encouraging. Ninety-three per cent of complaints have been resolved through informal dispute resolution processes. That means students are receiving practical outcomes without unnecessary delays.
The benefits extend beyond individual complaints. The National Student Ombudsman helps identify systematic issues across the sector. It provides advice and education on better complaints handling.
It shares better practice. It helps institutions improve. Around 80 per cent of surveyed providers have reported implementing systems and services improvements following engagement with the ombudsman.
That creates benefits across the whole higher education system. Students benefit, providers benefit and the broader reputation of Australian higher education benefits. The legislation before the House today ensures that work can continue as a sustainable footing.
The government has provided $44.3 million over four years to underwrite the operations of the National Student Ombudsman. Under these bills, those operating costs will be recovered from higher education providers through an annual levy paid in arrears from 1 January 2027. Importantly, students will continue to access the service free of charge.
A student's ability to seek assistance should never depend on their capacity to pay. The service exists to support students. Keeping it accessible is essential.
The higher education sector also benefits directly from the ombudsman's work. Institutions benefit from improving complaints handling. They benefit from guidance and education, and they benefit from the identification of systematic problems before those issues become larger failures.
A cost recovery arrangement recognises those benefits and helps secure the long-term future of the service. I am so proud to represent Melbourne, Australia's great education city. That reputation has not happened by accident.
It has been built over generations by students, educators, researchers and institutions that have helped make our city a destination for learning, discovery and opportunity. Every year, people come to Melbourne because they believe education can change their future. They come to gain skills, to build careers and to create opportunities that might otherwise have been out of reach.
They deserve a higher education system that backs that ambition, a system that opens doors, a system that supports them through their studies, a system that listens when something goes wrong. The Albanese Labor government has been focused on building exactly that kind of system. Through the Universities Accord, student debt relief, paid prac, expanding access to universities and with the establishment of the National Student Ombudsman, Labor is strengthening the institutions that help Australians build better futures.
This legislation helps ensure that important work continues. It will ensure students retain access to a free and independent pathway for complaints and support. It will strengthen confidence in Australia's higher education sector, and it forms part of Labor's broader commitment to making education more accessible, more affordable and more responsive to the needs of students.
That's because, for Labor, education has never just been about qualifications. It has always been about opportunity—opportunity for the student who is the first in their family to attend university, opportunity for the young person trying to build a better life and opportunity for communities, industries and a country that depends on the skills and talents of its people.
That belief remains at the centre of Labor's agenda today. I commend the bill to the House. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Lawrence ): I understand the member for Pearce would like to present a copy of their speech for incorporation into Hansard in accordance with the resolution agreed to on 6 November 2025.