This instrument is the Standards for Registered Training Organisations Amendment (Fit and Proper Person) Instrument 2023.

(1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.

Commencement information
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Provisions	Commencement	Date/Details
1. The whole of this instrument	The day after registration.

Note: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.

(2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.

3 Authority

This instrument is made under subsections 185(1) and 186(1) of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011.

4 Schedules

Each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to this instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this instrument has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1—Amendments

Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015

1 Part 1, Glossary

Insert: ‘government training contract means a contract that a registered training organisation has with the Commonwealth or a state or territory (or a statutory authority of a state or territory) under which it receives funding in relation to the provision by the registered training organisation of vocational education and training.’

2 Schedule 3

Repeal the schedule, substitute:

Schedule 3 - Fit and Proper Person Requirements

1 Application of Fit and Proper Person Requirements

(1) The VET Regulator must have regard to all matters it considers relevant that are specified in this Schedule when determining whether a person specified in subsection (2) is a fit and proper person for the purposes of registration, renewing registration, or maintaining registration as a registered training organisation.

(2) A person will not be a fit and proper person, if the VET Regulator is satisfied that, having regard to all matters it considers relevant in this Schedule, one or more of the following persons are not a fit and proper person:

(a) an executive officer of the registered training organisation;

(b) a high managerial agent of the registered training organisation; or

(c) any person which exercises a degree of control or influence over the management or direction of the registered training organisation.

Note: The definition of ‘person’ includes a body politic or corporate as well as an individual: see section 2C of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.

Note 2: Subsection (2) does not limit the types of persons which the VET Regulator may have regard to when undertaking a fit and proper person assessment.

2 Compliance with law

(1) Regardless of whether a conviction has been recorded, the VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has been found guilty of an offence against, or ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty under, a law of the Commonwealth or a State or Territory.

Note: Part VIIC of the Crimes Act 1914 includes provisions that, in certain circumstances, relieve persons from the requirement to disclose spent convictions and require persons aware of such convictions to disregard them. Nothing in subsection (1) affects the operation of Part VIIC of the Crimes Act 1914.

(2) The VET Regulator may have regard to the seriousness of, and the time elapsed since the offence, conviction, or matter to which the pecuniary penalty relates occurred.

(3) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person is currently involved in proceedings before a court or tribunal.

(4) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has been found guilty of a foreign offence (within the meaning of section 85ZL of the Crimes Act 1914).

3 Management history

(1) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether one or more of the following has been cancelled, revoked, suspended or rejected:

(a) the person’s registration as a registered training organisation;

(b) the person’s application for registration or renewal of registration as a registered training organisation;

(c) the person’s approval as an approved course provider (within the meaning of the VET Student Loans Act 2016) or VET provider (within the meaning of the Higher Education Support Act 2003);

(d) subsidy funding arrangements with a State or Territory for the provision of education by the person.

(2) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has:

(a) breached a condition of registration; or

(b) had a condition imposed by way of sanction on a registration, approval or arrangement mentioned in subsection (1) and has breached such a condition.

(3) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has ever been a manager or director of a registered higher education provider (within the meaning of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011) or registered provider (within the meaning of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000) at a time that the registered higher education provider or registered provider was determined to have breached a condition of its registration under the:

(a) Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000; or

(b) Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011.

(4) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has ever been involved:

(a) in the business of delivering courses or other services on behalf of a person that was the subject of regulatory action described in subsections (1), (2) or (3); or

(b) with an entity at the time that entity was found to have breached a government training contract.

(5) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has been disqualified from managing corporations under Part 2D.6 of the Corporations Act 2001.

4 Financial record

The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person:

(a) has been insolvent or bankrupt; or

(b) has taken steps to take the benefit of any law for the relief of bankrupt or insolvent debtors; or

(d) has assigned remuneration for the benefit of one or more creditors; or

(e) has been under external administration (within the meaning of subsection 600H(2) of the Corporations Act 2001); or

(f) has outstanding debts to the Commonwealth.

5 Provision of information

The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has provided false or misleading information to any of the following in circumstances where it is reasonable to assume that the person knew that the information was false or misleading:

(a) a VET Regulator;

(b) the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency;

(c) the TPS Director (within the meaning of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000), including in the TPS Director’s capacity as the VSL Tuition Protection Director under the VET Student Loans Act 2016 and the Higher Education Tuition Protection Director under the Higher Education Support Act 2003;

(d) the Minister, the Department or the Secretary;

(e) an authority of a State or Territory that deals with subsidy funding arrangements for education.

6 Previous conduct and involvements

(1) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has previously been found not to be a fit and proper person for the purposes of one or more of the following:

(a) the Act;

(b) the Australian Education Act 2013;

(d) the Higher Education Support Act 2003;

(e) the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011;

(f) the VET Student Loans Act 2016;

(g) subsidy funding arrangements with a State or Territory for the provision of education;

(h) any other law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory.

(2) The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the person has engaged in conduct that reasonably suggests a deliberate pattern of unethical behaviour.

(3) The VET Regulator may have regard to any other matter it considers relevant.

7 Additional considerations

The VET Regulator may have regard to whether the public is unlikely to have confidence in the person's suitability to be involved in an organisation that provides, assesses or issues nationally recognised qualifications.