House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Skills and Training, the Hon Andrew Giles MP)

STATEMENT OF COMPATIBILITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS

Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011

VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025

1. The VET Student Loans (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2025 (the Bill) is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

Overview of the Bill

2. The purpose of the Bill is to provide retrospective authorisation for approved VET Student Loans (VSL) providers' historical activities that involved requiring or requesting, collecting, recording, storing, using and disclosing student tax file numbers (TFNs) for purposes of facilitating the administration of or administering a student's application for a VET Student Loan or the student's loan itself. The Bill will also authorise the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations' (department) disclosure of TFNs to VSL providers for the same purposes.

3. The measure in this Bill is time limited and is applied retrospectively from the VSL program commencement date (1 January 2017) until the final technology solution was implemented to completely mask TFNs from providers in program's systems. This has occurred before 1 October 2025, and the Bill sets this date as the end date of the retrospective period.

4. Students are required under paragraph 17(1)(a) of the VSL Act to provide their TFN when submitting their application for a loan for a VSL course that they enrolled in with their approved VSL provider through the Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) system. If a student does not have a TFN, they can supply a Certificate of Application for a TFN received from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) when applying for the loan. However, if no TFN information is provided by the student the Secretary is not required to pay a loan amount for a student under section 20 of the VSL Act.

5. A TFN is essential in the VSL program for ensuring the student's loan application details match with their ATO account, so that the loan amount accurately sits with the individual accessing a VET Student Loan for their studies. This is because loan repayments are made through Australia's tax system when the student's income reaches the repayment threshold.

6. VSL provider officers have access to the eCAF system and were previously able to access student TFNs in the eCAF until system changes were implemented on 28 March 2025. This previous access to TFNs enabled VSL providers to use, record and disclose TFNs for the purpose of student participation in VSL approved courses and the VSL program. This previous practice allowed VSL providers to report student TFNs to the department via the Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI) system, allowing loan information to progress to the ATO and student debts to be repaid.

7. The department identified during a review of how VET Student Loans are administered that there is no clear role for VSL providers to handle TFNs in the VSL Act and stronger alignment between relevant IT systems and legislation was required for handling TFNs. Subsequently, the Australian Government has since early 2025 made updates to relevant VSL IT systems. This has included masking student TFNs from VSL providers and automating the transfer of TFNs between relevant VSL systems without provider involvement. While progressing these updates, relevant stakeholders were informed, including VSL providers, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the Commissioner of Taxation, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the Department of Treasury and the Attorney-General's Department

8. Final system changes were implemented on 30 September 2025 to ensure there will be no further disclosure of TFNs to VSL providers, nor any need for the subsequent handling of such TFNs by VSL providers. Therefore, the measure in this Bill is required to only validate previous actions (the requiring or requesting, collecting, recording, storing, use or disclosure of a student's tax file number in eCAF and TCSI systems) by the providers and their officers that have occurred in the retrospective period for the limited purposes set out in the Bill.

9. The validation will also extend to other relevant persons including the department's Secretary, the Commissioner of Taxation and Commonwealth officers to the extent they permitted the past disclosure of TFNs to providers for the purposes of facilitating the administration of a student's loan application or a VET Student Loan. However, the measure will not impact on Commonwealth officers' obligations to comply with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) and Public Service Act 1999 (PS Act).

10. The measure only provides relevant persons with immunity from liability in narrow circumstances (as further detailed in the notes on clauses); specifically applying only during the relevant period when providers and other relevant persons were dealing with TFNs for the purposes of facilitating the administration of or administering a student's application for a VET Student Loan or the student's loan itself.

11. It is appropriate to authorise relevant persons' past handling of TFNs given their actions were undertaken in good faith to enable students to access loans through the VET Student Loans program, by facilitating the administration of or administering the students' applications for a VET Student Loan or the loan itself.

12. There are unlikely to be any persons adversely affected by the retrospective operation of the Bill. There are strict use and disclosure provisions that apply to VET information under the VSL Act, which VSL providers must comply with. Providers have been subject to these information security and integrity safeguards since the VSL program commenced. These measures include extensive approval processes informed by thorough assessment of providers and their officers with the program's fit and proper person requirements, which are aligned to similar requirements applied by the Australian Skills Quality Authority to Registered Training Organisations. Conditions of approval in accordance with the VSL Act also require providers to notify the department of any student related data breaches and outline criminal offences for any unauthorised handling of student information. In addition, the eCAF and TCSI systems incorporate security controls designed to safeguard students' personal information. These protections will continue to apply after the Bill's commencement.

Human rights implications

13. The definition of 'human rights' in the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 relates to the core seven United Nations human rights treaties. The Bill engages the following rights:

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The right to work in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

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The right to education in Article 13 of the ICESCR.

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The right to privacy in Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Right to work

14. The Bill engages the right to work contained in Article 6 of the ICESCR. Article 6(1) recognises the right to work, which includes the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work which a person freely chooses or accepts. Article 6(2) provides that the steps to be taken by a State Party to achieve the full realisation of this right include providing technical and vocational guidance and training programs.

15. The Bill supports the right to work because it authorises previous actions (the requiring or requesting, collecting, recording, storing, use or disclosure of a student's TFN in eCAF and TCSI systems) by the providers and their officers for the administration of the VSL program since the program commenced. A student's TFN is an eligibility criterion that is provided by the student in the VSL program's eCAF system. Without a TFN a student is unable to access a loan, subsequently the measure in the Bill ensures the administration of a student's loan application or a VSL in respect of the TFN handling was valid during the retrospective period. The measure also supports the program's overall objective to provide financial support to students that undertake higher level training in courses that address workplace and industry needs, thereby creating better opportunities for employment.

16. The Bill is compatible with the right to work.

Right to education

17. The Bill engages the right to education contained in Article 13 of the ICESCR. Article 13(2)(b) states that "secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational secondary education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means".

18. By providing for retrospective authority by providers in handling of students TFNs in the program from 1 January 2017 until immediately before 1 October 2025, the Bill supports the right to education because a TFN is required as part of a student's eCAF application for a VET Student Loan and more broadly in facilitating the administration of the loan. This would ensure past handling of TFNs by VSL providers is considered authorised, noting such handling was undertaken for their students' benefit to ensure they were able to receive a VET Student Loan during the retrospective period.

19. The Bill is compatible with the right to education.

Right to privacy

20. The Bill engages the right to privacy contained in Article 17 of the ICCPR. Article 17 provides that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on their honour and reputation. The right to privacy includes respect for informational privacy, including in relation to storing, using and sharing private information, as well as the right to control the dissemination of personal and private information.

21. To be permissible as a matter of international human rights law, interferences with privacy must be according to law and not arbitrary. In order to not be arbitrary, any interference with privacy must be in accordance with the provisions, aims and objectives of the ICCPR and should be reasonable in the particular circumstances. The UN Human Rights Committee has interpreted 'reasonableness' to mean that any interference with privacy must be proportional to the end sought and be necessary in the circumstances.

22. The measure in this Bill does not interfere with an individual's privacy on a prospective basis. The Bill only retrospectively authorises dealing with student TFNs for narrow purposes and does not authorise any prospective dealing with TFNs. The retrospective authorisation of dealing with students' TFNs in the Bill is for a legitimate objective; to authorise actions taken to ensure the program's integrity including:

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ensuring student's eligibility requirements are met by facilitating the administration of the student's application, and

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ensuring their loan application contains information of the student's TFN, so that the VSL loan record incurred by the student appears accurately on the individual's account at the Australian Taxation Office.

23. Any interference with privacy in this Bill is not arbitrary as it is reasonable, necessary and proportionate to its legitimate objective, because of the following factors:

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The measure only applies to a class of 'relevant person' which is narrowly defined in clause 3 of the Bill to be the Secretary; or the Commissioner; or an approved course provider; or a Commonwealth officer; or an officer of an approved course provider.

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The types of dealing of student's TFN by a relevant person which the measure in the Bill authorises is narrowly defined under clause 3 of the Bill.

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The measure in the Bill only operates to authorise the dealing with a student's TFN for the purposes of facilitating the administration of or administering a student's application for a VET Student Loan or the student's loan itself, and does not extend to dealings with TFNs for other purposes or authorise dealing with other types of personal information.

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The Bill will not apply to civil and criminal proceedings, nor complaints to the Information Commissioner, where the proceedings were finalised or the complaint was determined before the commencement of the Bill. This ensures VSL students retain their right to bring a privacy complaint prior to the Bill's commencement.

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The measure in the Bill will only apply for a specified retrospective period from 1 January 2017 (when the VSL program commenced) until immediately before 1 October 2025, and is not an ongoing authorisation.

24. Since the commencement of the VSL program in 2017 there have been strong information security and integrity measures put in place that apply to VSL providers and their officers in handling VSL students' personal information, which will not be removed by the Bill. These measures include:

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extensive approval processes informed by thorough assessment of providers and their officers in accordance with the fit and proper person requirements applied by the Australian Skills Quality Authority

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conditions of approval made in accordance with the VSL Act which require providers to notify the department of any student related data breaches

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civil penalties and criminal offences under Part 9 of the VSL Act which apply to providers for any misuse of personal information in the VSL program

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security controls in the eCAF and TCSI system to ensure students' personal information is protected.

25. The Bill is compatible with the right to privacy

Conclusion

26. The Bill is compatible with human rights because it supports those rights and to the extent that the Bill limits the right to privacy, it is reasonable, necessary and proportionate in pursuit of a legitimate objective.