National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 2026
Ms COFFEY (Griffith) (18:20): An offer of a university place brings excitement, relief and the chance to imagine a different future. For a school leaver, it can mean the first real step towards work they have dreamed about for years. For a parent returning to study, it can mean a new career and greater security for their family.
For the first person in a family to attend university, that offer can carry the hopes of generations. We encourage people to take that step. A student deserves fair treatment throughout their course.
They deserve a safe place to learn and a serious response to concerns about their wellbeing, and they deserve somewhere independent to turn to if university lets them down. The National Student Ombudsman provides that independent service and the bill before us, the National Student Ombudsman Levy Bill 206, will support its ongoing operation, keeping it free for students who need help.
My commitment to education began long before I entered this parliament. I'm a qualified secondary schoolteacher. I did the university study but haven't actually been a teacher in my career.
I believe deeply in the value of learning and in the responsibility we share to give every young person a fair chance. I spent more than 13 years working for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, including as the deputy CEO, supporting educational opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. That work informs the way I think about education policy today.
An opportunity has to come with support. A place at an educational institution is the beginning of its responsibility to a student. Young people bring their own abilities and ambitions.
Our institutions must provide the conditions for them to learn, ask for help and pursue those ambitions with confidence. For a student studying away from home, a problem at university can feel much harder without family nearby. For someone unfamiliar with university processes, even finding the right person to contact can become an obstacle.
And for a student facing racism or discrimination, the response to a complaint can affect their sense of belonging. I want every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student to know that they belong in higher education if that is the path that they choose. Their cultures deserve respect.
Their concerns deserve attention. We cannot ask students to be confident about their future and then leave them alone to challenge unfair treatment. Our ambition must extend from the offer of a place through to the completion of a qualification with support throughout.
These responsibilities have a direct connection to the community I represent. Griffith University's Southbank campus is home to the Queensland Conservatorium and the Queensland College of Art and Design. Students develop their talents in institutions that contribute to the cultural life of our community.
At TAFE's Southbank campus, the University of Canberra partnership provides another local avenue into degree study. It brings university education into a setting familiar to many people pursuing practical skills and further qualifications. These students are part of the everyday life of South Brisbane and our surrounding suburbs.
They rent homes, work shifts and contribute to local organisations. Some balance study with caring responsibilities. Others have moved away from family to take up their place.
A difficult experience with an education provider can reach into every part of that life. An unresolved complaint can consume time meant for assignments. Uncertainty can make it hard to concentrate.
A student worried about their safety can struggle to keep up with attending their classes. We should be proud of our education providers and expect them to respond well to concerns. Independent scrutiny supports that expectation.
It gives students confidence that someone outside their institution can examine what has happened. The National Student Ombudsman began operating on 1 February last year, following years of calls for stronger student protections. The Australian Universities Accord recommended its establishment.
Education ministers included in the national action plan addressing gender based violence in higher education. Our government acted on those calls. Students now have a free, independent service to help address concerns they have been unable to resolve with their higher education provider.
Its work includes complaints about student safety and fairness of complaint processes. It can examine concerns about reasonable adjustments for students with a disability and aspects of course administration. Think of a student seeking an adjustment that will help them participate in their course.
Repeated requests go unanswered, and an assessment deadline approaches. They need a clear response and a fair process. They need to know what happens next.
Or think of a student reporting harassment and then struggling to obtain information about the handling of their complaint. Each unanswered email can deepen their uncertainty. Each delay can make continuing their education more difficult.
The ombudsman provides independent examination of the provider's actions. It can bring parties together to resolve problems, make recommendations and monitor the provider's response. That independence is a practical protection for students dealing with an institution that holds considerable influence over their future.
We should recognise the imbalance a student can face in that situation. A university has established procedures, experienced administrators and access to professional advice. A student making a complaint for the first time can feel overwhelmed by the process before anyone has examined the substance of their concern.
They can worry about damaging relationships with the people responsible for their education. They can question whether speaking up will make their circumstances harder. An independent ombudsman gives them another avenue to pursue a fair response.
The importance of that work lies in its ability to examine an institution's actions, seek explanations and recommend changes. A student's concern receives scrutiny beyond the provider's own processes. Independence must come with the capacity to act.
The ombudsman's investigative powers and ability to monitor recommendations give substance to the right to raise a concern. Students deserve a process that looks carefully at the evidence and treats everyone fairly, and providers deserve clear findings that help them understand what went wrong and what needs to change. Students who experienced sexual violence spoke about the harm they suffered and the failures in the institutional responses that followed.
They asked for accountability, and they sought changes that would protect other students from similar experiences. In September 2024, End Rape On Campus Australia, the STOP Campaign and Fair Agenda welcomed the legislation to establish the ombudsman. The founder of the STOP Campaign said: We shouldn't have had to share the horrors of what we experienced to get change.
No student should have to make their most painful experiences public to persuade an institution to take their safety seriously. For someone already managing the effects of trauma, pursuing a complaint can require enormous effort. Retelling an experience, gathering correspondence and waiting for a response can add to that burden.
The way a service listens can influence whether a person feels able to continue to seek help. That is why the ombudsman's trauma-informed work is so important. Respectful treatment must be part of the complaint process from the first contact through until its outcome.
The national code to prevent and respond to gender-based violence forms another part of our government's work on student safety. The ombudsman provides independent complaint handling; the code sets expectations for prevention and responses to gender-based violence. This bill supports the continuing work of the ombudsman with that wider effort.
As of last month, the National Student Ombudsman had received 7,690 student contacts and resolved over 6,000 matters. That represents 78 per cent of contacts received since it began operating. The service has resolved 93 per cent of complaints through informal dispute resolution processes.
That tells us something useful about the work involved. Independent complaint handling can help people reach practical outcomes without every dispute requiring a lengthy formal investigation. That value extends beyond the individual matter. 80 per cent of providers surveyed said the ombudsman reported implementing improvements to systems and services following its complaint-handling and education arrangements.
A complaint can reveal a problem affecting another student who may never have raised it themselves. Fixing that problem can prevent further harm and save other students the effort of pursuing the same concern. The ombudsman helps providers recognise those patterns and improve their complaint handling.
Better complaint handling gives staff clearer processes and gives students clearer answers. It can help an institution respond earlier, before a problem grows more serious or a student loses confidence in seeking help. The ombudsman's work reaches students who never contact the service themselves.
They benefit from improvements made after someone else raised the concern. We should judge the service by that wider contribution, alongside the individual matter that it resolves. That is a reason to support its ongoing work across the higher education sector.
This legislation forms part of our government's response to the Australian Universities Accord. We have implemented more than 30 of the accord's 47 recommendations in full or in part. We have cut HECS debts by 20 per cent and made indexation fairer.
We have raised the minimum repayment threshold and changed repayments so that they better reflect people's incomes. We have introduced paid prac, expanded access to free university bridging courses and invested in more regional and suburban university study hubs. The ombudsman addresses another barrier: the risk that unfair treatment or an unresolved complaint will push someone out of their course.
Every student who feels forced to abandon their studies carries the cost of that lost opportunity. Their family can feel it too, particularly after years of encouragement and sacrifice to help get them there. We should take that possibility seriously in every discussion about student support.
The National Student Ombudsman helps uphold the promise we make to every student who accepts an offer of a place. Their education deserves our investment, their safety deserves our attention and their right to a fair hearing deserves a service they can rely on.