National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026
Ms COMER (Petrie) (17:55): I rise today in strong support of the National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026. At its core, this bill is about making sure students have somewhere to turn when something goes wrong—somewhere independent, somewhere free, somewhere they'll know they'll be listened to. Importantly, this bill is about making sure that service is properly funded and sustainable into the future.
This is an issue that is particularly important to me. When I was studying full-time at the University of the Sunshine Coast, UniSC, not only did I learn through my coursework; I also learnt through my time on the student senate and the university council. University is an incredibly important chapter of many people's lives.
It gives them the opportunity to learn, to meet people from completely different backgrounds, to challenge themselves and to become involved in campus life. One of the most important things I took away from my studies was the understanding of just how important it is that students have a voice. While at UniSC, I was elected to serve as co-chair of the student senate and as a member of the university council.
I put my hand up for those roles because I wanted to help my peers—my fellow students. I wanted students to know that there was someone prepared to listen to them, someone prepared to advocate for them and someone prepared to make sure their concerns were heard. For me, student representation was never about having a title.
It was about making sure that students had a genuine say in decisions that affected their education, their wellbeing and their university experience. Student safety mattered to me then, student voices mattered to me then and they still matter enormously to me today. That is why I feel so strongly about the National Student Ombudsman.
No matter how good a university is, some things can go wrong. Universities are enormous organisations. They have faculties, schools, administrative departments, enrolment processes, academic review procedures, placement requirements, complaints systems, appeal processes and pages upon pages of policies.
If you work inside those systems every day, they make sense. But, for a student encountering them for the first time, particularly when something has already gone wrong, they can be incredibly difficult to navigate. A student might receive a decision affecting their assessment, their enrolment, their placement or their progression through their degree.
Suddenly, that student is not just dealing with the consequences of that decision. They are trying to work out who they need to speak to, what processes they need to follow, what their rights are, whether they can appeal and where they can go if they feel the internal system has failed them. That can be intimidating for anyone, but it can be particularly difficult for a student who has moved away from home for the first time, for an international student learning a completely new education system, for a student with disability, for someone from a disadvantaged background, for the first person in the family to attend university or for someone already dealing with a traumatic experience.
Students should not need a law degree just to work out how they can properly have their concerns heard. They should not be bounced from one department to another. When they have exhausted their university's internal complaints processes, they should not feel as though they are completely on their own.
That is where the National Student Ombudsman matters. The ombudsman gives higher education students access to a free, independent and trauma informed pathway for complaints that cannot be resolved internally. Every one of those words matters.
It is free because access to justice and a fair complaints process should not depend on how much money a student has in their bank account. It is independent because sometimes students need somewhere outside their institution to turn. It is trauma informed because the issues students bring forward can be serious, confronting and deeply personal.
There is an obvious power imbalance between an individual student and a major university. One student can be dealing with an organisation with thousands of employees, established administrative structures, detailed policies, professional advisers and lawyers. It is very easy for someone in that situation to feel small, to feel overwhelmed and to feel like nobody is listening.
The National Student Ombudsman helps to change that, and we already know that students are using it. The ombudsman commenced operations on 1 February 2025. By 31 August this year it received 7,690 student contacts and had resolved 6,016 matters—that is 78 per cent of all contacts received since the beginning of operations.
For a service that has only existed for a relatively short period of time, that is a significant level of demand, but the figure also shows something else. They show that the ombudsman is actually resolving matters. Ninety-three per cent of complaints have been resolved through informal dispute resolution, and that is an important result because a good complaint system does not need to turn every disagreement into a prolonged legal battle.
Sometimes, what a student needs is for someone independent to look at what happened, to understand the situation, to make sure the process is being fair and to help find a practical way forward. That is exactly the kind of role the ombudsman is playing. But his work is not limited to individual complaints.
One complaint can tell us something much bigger about the way a system is working. It can expose unclear policy, a broken process, poor communication or a weakness in the way complaints are handled. That means helping one student can also help hundreds or even thousands of students who come after them, and we're already seeing that happen.
Eighty per cent of higher education providers surveyed by the National Student Ombudsman reported that they were implementing system and service improvements following complaints handling and education engagements with the ombudsman. That is significant. That is not a service that simply receives a complaint, closes the file and moves on.
It is helping universities improve, it is helping institutions identify weaknesses and is helping build a better higher education system. That brings me to the levy at the centre of this bill. The National Student Ombudsman is no longer an idea.
It is operating, and students are using it. Complaints are being resolved, and universities are making changes because of its work. If we want that work to continue, then we must fund it properly.
During the establishment phase, the government bore the operating costs of the National Student Ombudsman. The higher education sector was advised in March 2024 that the government intended to move to a cost recovery model once the ombudsman was established, and this legislation delivers that model. From 1 January 2027, the National Student Ombudsman will move to full cost recovery from the higher education sector.
That means the institutions operating within our higher education system will contribute to the cost of maintaining the independent complaints mechanism that supports the accountability across that system. That's fair because, while the Ombudsman provides a service directly to students, the benefits flow across the entire higher education sector. Universities benefit when complaints are resolved earlier, they benefit when systemic problems are identified, they benefit when they receive guidance about improving internal complaints processes, and they benefit when students have greater confidence in the integrity of the higher education system, so it makes sense that the sector should contribute to maintaining that service.
One thing this legislation does not do is put that cost onto students, and that is incredibly important. A student should never have to think, 'Can I afford to make a complaint?' Students have already faced significant financial pressure. Many are working while studying.
They are paying rent, buying groceries, paying for transport and trying to keep up with their studies while managing all the other costs of everyday life. There should not be another fee standing between them and independent support when they need it most. The levy is designed to recover the operating costs of the Ombudsman in arrears.
It is not intended to generate extra revenue for government. This is not a broad new tax. It is not money being collected for an unrelated purpose.
It is targeted cost recovery mechanism for a specific service. That is an important distinction. The amount recovered is connected to the cost of operating the National Student Ombudsman, and, importantly, it means students can continue to access the service for free.
The government is providing $44.3 million over four years from 2026-27 to underwrite the annual operating cost of the ombudsman with those costs then recovered from higher education providers through the annual levy paid in arrears. That gives the ombudsman certainty, and certainty matters. You cannot have an effective independent complaints body if its staff are constantly wondering whether they will have the resources they need to do the job.
Investigating complaints takes resources, supporting informal dispute resolution takes resources, identifying systemic problems takes resources, and working with universities to improve complaints handling takes resources. The people doing this work need the expertise and the capacity to deal with what can often be complex and sensitive matters. This bill gives the ombudsman a sustainable funding base to do exactly that.
The legislation also establishes the framework for administering the levy. The detailed rates and methodology will be developed through the regulations and guidelines following further consultation with the higher education sector. That is appropriate because higher education providers are very different.
They vary enormously in size, student numbers, structure and location. So while parliament establishes the framework, the detailed operation of the levy can be developed in consultation with those who will be part of that system. The framework also provides for matters including refunds, remission or waiver, penalties for late payment and review of decisions relating to collection and recovery.
That provides transparency, it provides accountability and it provides clarity for higher education providers about how the scheme will work. This bill also forms part of a much broader agenda for higher education. In February 2024 the government released the final report on the Australian Universities Accord.
That accord set out a major challenge for Australia: over coming decades we need more Australians with the skills and qualifications for the jobs of the future. That means more people going to TAFE, and it means more people going to university. But it cannot simply be about getting students through that front door.
We have to support them once they are there. That is why this government has made HECS fairer. It is why we have introduced paid prac, why we have expanded the university study hubs, why we have increased access to free university bridging courses and why we have established the National Student Ombudsman.
The ombudsman also forms part of our broader work to address gender based violence in higher education, because when a student is dealing with something as serious as gender based violence or another traumatic experience, they should not be left to navigate a complicated institutional complaints process alone. There needs to be somewhere else to go—somewhere independent, somewhere that understands the seriousness of what they're dealing with.
That is what the National Student Ombudsman provides. The title of this bill talks about the levy, but ultimately this bill is about people. It is about the student who feels nobody is listening.
It is about the student who has reached the end of an internal process and does not know where to go next. It is about the student who needs someone independent in their corner. It is about making sure that service is still there when they need it.
When I think back to my own time at UniSC, I think about how much I enjoyed being a student. I think about serving on the council, and I think about being co-chair of the student senate. I think about why I put my hand up in the first place.
It was because I believe that students deserve a voice, I believe their concerns deserve to be heard, and I believe institutions work better when they listen to the people that they work for. University should challenge students—through what they learn, through the ideas they encounter, through the skills they develop and through the ambitions they pursue. It should not challenge them to work out which office will listen to them when something has gone wrong.
The National Student Ombudsman gives students another pathway. This bill makes sure that pathway has a sustainable future. It establishes a fair cost recovery model.
It ensures the sector contributes to the service which it benefits from and protects free access for students. It gives the National Student Ombudsman the certainty it needs to continue supporting students across Australia. As someone who has been a university student, who has represented students and who understands how important student voices and student safety are, I am incredibly proud to support this legislation.
I strongly support the National Student Ombudsman, I strongly support giving students an independent voice when they need one, and I strongly support this bill. I commend the bill to the House.