This bill is currently before Parliament.
Education & skills
The bill would reverse parts of the 2020 Job-Ready GraduatesThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. fee changes by lowering maximum student contribution amounts for several university subject areas, especially law, commerce, communications, society and culture.
The bill was introduced to undo the student-fee increases made by the 2020 Job-Ready Graduates packageThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. for the subject areas identified in the explanatory memorandumThe official document circulated with a bill to explain what it is intended to do and how its clauses work.. Senator Mehreen Faruqi and the explanatory memorandumThe official document circulated with a bill to explain what it is intended to do and how its clauses work. framed the proposal as a response to calls from students, academics and the higher education sector to reduce debt and remove what they saw as punitive price signals against humanities, communications, society and culture, law and commerce-related study.
The bill sits in the continuing argument over the Job-Ready Graduates packageThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas., a 2020 higher-education funding reform that changed what students pay across disciplines. The sponsor and explanatory memorandumThe official document circulated with a bill to explain what it is intended to do and how its clauses work. focus on the resulting high student contribution amounts for arts, humanities, law, commerce, communications and society and culture subjects. The collected record supports a conservative account: this is a private senator's billA bill introduced by a senator who is not introducing it as a government minister. It can start debate but does not become law unless both houses pass it and it receives Royal Assent. introduced in November 2025, later referred to a Senate committee, with no collected evidence of passage, amendments or assent.
The collected material does not include later debate from other parties, amendment outcomes, divisions or a committee report. The main controversy visible in the local source bundle is the older policy argument around Job-Ready GraduatesThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. itself: the sponsor says the 2020 fee settings were punitive and distorted student choices, while the source bundle does not collect a detailed opposing case to this specific 2025 bill.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi introduced this bill. Supportive speeches so far have come from Greens.
Did it become law?
Not yet
Final passage
No final vote yet
The bill has not yet completed passage through Parliament.
Days since introduction
197 days
Updated 10 June 2026.
Meaning
The bill would reverse parts of the 2020 Job-Ready GraduatesThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. fee changes by lowering maximum student contribution amounts for several university subject areas, especially law, commerce, communications, society and culture.
For law, accounting, administration, economics and commerce units, the bill would set the maximum student contribution amountThe part of a Commonwealth supported university place that a student can be charged, often deferred through the student loan system. at $13,624 for both grandfathered and non-grandfathered students.
For communications or society and culture units, the bill would set the maximum student contribution amountThe part of a Commonwealth supported university place that a student can be charged, often deferred through the student loan system. at $8,164 for both grandfathered and non-grandfathered students.
The bill would replace the Higher Education Support Act fee table for Commonwealth supported places, including listed rates for education, clinical psychology, English, mathematics, statistics, health, built environment, computing, arts, nursing, languages, engineering, science, agriculture, medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and pathology units.
If enacted, the changes would apply to units of study with a census dateThe key date for a university unit when enrolment and fee liability are usually finalised. The bill would apply to units with a census date on or after commencement. on or after commencement, even where the student started the course before commencement.
The bill would commence on the later of 1 January 2026 or the day after Royal AssentThe final formal approval needed after a bill passes both houses of Parliament before it can become an Act.. The collected APH material records the bill as still before the Senate, so this page does not treat those changes as law.
The purpose of this Bill is to repeal the job-ready graduates fee hikes ... return the maximum student contribution amounts for places in most affected units of study to their cost prior to the 2020 fee hikes ... This includes Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, Society and Culture, and Communications.Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) explanatory memorandum
Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, Communications, Society and Culture ... for a place in a unit in Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics or Commerce—$13,624.Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) introduced bill text
for a place in a unit in Communications or Society and Culture—$8,164.Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) introduced bill text
Repeal the table, substitute: Maximum student contribution amounts for a place ... Education, Clinical Psychology, English, Mathematics, Statistics ... Nursing, Indigenous and Foreign Languages, Engineering, Surveying, Environmental Studies, Science ... Agriculture, Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, Pathology.Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) introduced bill text
This item provides that the amendments made by Part 1 of Schedule 1 apply in relation to a unit of study that has a census date that is on or after the commencement of the Bill, regardless of whether the unit of study is part of a course of study commenced before, on or after that commencement.Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) explanatory memorandum
The later of: (a) 1 January 2026; or (b) the day after this Act receives the Royal Assent.Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) introduced bill text
Context
The bill sits in the continuing argument over the Job-Ready Graduates packageThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas., a 2020 higher-education funding reform that changed what students pay across disciplines. The sponsor and explanatory memorandumThe official document circulated with a bill to explain what it is intended to do and how its clauses work. focus on the resulting high student contribution amounts for arts, humanities, law, commerce, communications and society and culture subjects. The collected record supports a conservative account: this is a private senator's billA bill introduced by a senator who is not introducing it as a government minister. It can start debate but does not become law unless both houses pass it and it receives Royal Assent. introduced in November 2025, later referred to a Senate committee, with no collected evidence of passage, amendments or assent.
Job-Ready GraduatesThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. changes become the target of this bill
The explanatory memorandumThe official document circulated with a bill to explain what it is intended to do and how its clauses work. says the bill is intended to reverse fee hikes made by the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready GraduatesThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Act 2020.
Explanatory memorandum ↗University sector debate surrounds the original changes
A collected Australian Financial Review article record from September 2020 refers to the graduates bill threatening research funding and dividing universities, marking public debate around the original package.
Australian Financial Review ↗Rising arts, business and law degree costs draw attention
A collected Australian Financial Review article record describes arts, business and law degree costs rising by 50 per cent in five years.
Australian Financial Review ↗The $50,000 arts degree becomes a public shorthand
A collected Australian Financial Review article record uses the $50,000 arts degree as a headline example of rising student debt, matching the phrase used in the bill title and sponsor speech.
Australian Financial Review ↗Greens introduce the reversal bill
Senator Mehreen Faruqi introduced the private senator's billA bill introduced by a senator who is not introducing it as a government minister. It can start debate but does not become law unless both houses pass it and it receives Royal Assent. in the Senate and second-reading proceedings began on the same day.
Parliament of Australia ↗Senate committee inquiry begins
The bill was referred to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, with a report due on 25 June 2026.
Parliament of Australia ↗Legislative route
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Introduced and read a first time
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
Second reading moved
The Senate referred the bill to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee. The collected APH note records the report due date as 25 June 2026; the local bundle does not include a committee report.
Report due 25 Jun 2026
APH bill page notesKey criticism
The collected material does not include later debate from other parties, amendment outcomes, divisions or a committee report. The main controversy visible in the local source bundle is the older policy argument around Job-Ready GraduatesThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. itself: the sponsor says the 2020 fee settings were punitive and distorted student choices, while the source bundle does not collect a detailed opposing case to this specific 2025 bill.
This page does not infer parliamentary opposition or support beyond the collected sources. A Senate committee inquiry had been referred, but no report was included in the local bundle.
Further sources
Votes
No recorded votes have been found yet for this bill.
Parliamentary debate
Start here — lead voices
Mehreen Faruqi supported the Greens bill as a reversal of the Job-Ready GraduatesThe 2020 higher-education reforms that changed student contribution amounts across university disciplines. This bill aims to reverse fee hikes from that package for listed subject areas. fee hikes.
Read in Hansard ↗All speeches by bloc
1 speaker · 1 support
“It repeals the fee hikes from Job-Ready Graduates. It provides that the maximum student contribution amounts for a place in a unit of study in Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, Society and Culture and Communications are reverted to what those amounts would have been on 1 January 2026, accounting for indexation, if the amendments made by the job-ready graduates bill had not commenced.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
Record
Senate · Introduced and read a first time
Introduced
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Senate · Second reading moved
Second reading opened
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee
Report due 25 Jun 2026
The Senate referred the bill to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee. The collected APH note records the report due date as 25 June 2026; the local bundle does not include a committee report.
Referred to Committee (5 Feb 2026): Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee; Report due 25 June 2026
APH bill page notes