Legislation establishing new government regulation of university enrolments is set to be enacted. The Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026 did not pass the Senate yesterday but it will, with the Government amending the Bill to address issues raised by the Greens, ACT independent David Pocock and the Opposition.
The last of the legislation establishing the Australian Tertiary Education Commission establishes ministerial authority to allocate undergraduate places via ATEC and empowers the Commission to distribute needs based funding for universities enrolling Indigenous, low SES and regional students, and confirms its distribution of international student places.
That Government underestimated the complexity of the change is demonstrated by the five additions to the Bill’s original explanatory memorandum culminating in the “supplementary explanatory memorandum relating to sheet HG147, which made a significant change, stopping an education minister reducing the total number of publicly funded UF places year on year.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi also proposed 13 amendments, Senator Pocock 14 and the Opposition nine. And that is after 17 amendments were agreed to the in the Reps. “You do have to wonder why a Bill that needs so many changes was even brought into Parliament in the first place,” Senator Faruqi said in the Senate Wednesday.
That the Government over-reached on authority for ATEC is equally apparent, from evidence of university witnesses to the Senate committee inquiry into the Bill. As Senator Faruqi reasonably put it, “without the Greens in the Senate, this Bill would have handed the minister of the day diabolical interventionist powers over higher education.”
And yet, albeit with significant changes, it will pass. Senator Pocock thanked the Government “for the direction they are heading in.” Senator Faruqi acknowledged the “good faith” of Education Minister Jason Clare in discussions.
The Senate next sits in a month.