General information, not legal advice. The official places to check are ASQA’s pages for providers and the law itself on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Why the national Act stops at two borders
The Commonwealth Act runs on a referral of power. Section 7(1): “A State is a non-referring State if the State is not a referring State.” In a non-referring State, section 8(4) says the Act applies to a training organisation that operates there if:
- “(a) the organisation is a registered provider (other than a secondary school); or”
- “(b) the organisation provides all or part of a VET course in the non-referring State and a referring State or a Territory; or”
- “(c) the organisation provides all or part of a VET course in the non-referring State and offers all or part of a VET course in a referring State or a Territory to be provided in the referring State or Territory.”
The Act does not name the two states; ASQA’s registration page does. An applicant whose principal place of business is in Victoria or Western Australia can apply to ASQA only if it will offer courses in a state or territory other than Victoria or Western Australia, including by offering courses online, or to overseas students.
| State | Regulator and law | Standards applied |
|---|---|---|
| Vic | VRQA, under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 | The Victorian RTO Standards, which include the AQTF 2010 standards for initial and for continuing registration and the VRQA VET Provider Guidelines |
| WA | TAC, under the Vocational Education and Training Act 1996 and the Vocational Education and Training (General) Regulations 2009 | The Standards for NVR Registered Training Organisations made under section 185 of the Commonwealth Act |
Victoria: the VRQA
The department’s Standards page states it directly: “Subsection 4.3.17(2) of this Act requires RTOs to meet the Victorian RTO Standards”. Those, it says, include the two AQTF 2010 Essential Conditions and Standards documents, one for initial and one for continuing registration, and the VRQA VET Provider Guidelines.
The Act itself, in Authorised Version No. 111 (amendments as at 30 September 2026), is paraphrased here. Section 4.3.15 lets a person, body or school principal apply to the Authority for registration on the National Register. Under section 4.3.16(2) the Authority must apply the RTO standards in deciding, and section 4.1.1(1) defines those as the two AQTF 2010 Essential Conditions and Standards documents, as endorsed by the Ministerial Council on 9 June 2010 and as later amended, remade or endorsed by it.
Under section 4.3.16(3), the Authority may grant registration only if all of these hold:
- the applicant will not otherwise be registered by another registering body;
- it is based in Victoria (its principal place of business is there), or does all or most of its work there;
- it has a clearly shown capacity to provide training of a satisfactory standard;
- its principal purpose is education and training, or it is a school registered under the Act, with the exceptions in section 4.3.16(4A), among them universities and TAFE institutes;
- it has paid any application fee the Minister fixes; and
- any other criterion in the regulations is met.
Section 4.3.16(2A) also has the Authority take into account matters about the applicant and its high managerial agents: having ever become bankrupt or made similar arrangements with creditors, been a director of a company that was wound up, or been disqualified from managing corporations; convictions for a category A offence, fraud or dishonesty, or certain consumer or company law offences, or their equivalents elsewhere; a past suspension, cancellation or condition on registration; a breach of a government training contract; and a failure to comply with the Child Safe Standards. Section 4.3.16(3A) adds that it may grant registration only if satisfied the applicant has an effective complaint handling process, where Part 4.6A requires one.
Western Australia: the TAC
Section 25 of the Vocational Education and Training Act 1996 establishes “a council called the Training Accreditation Council”, of 7 members appointed by the Minister. Section 58B gives it the power to register:
Section 58B, printed complete
“Subject to the regulations, the Council, on an application by a person or on its own initiative”:
- (a) “may register a training provider, either unconditionally or subject to conditions decided by the Council; and”
- (b) “if a registered training provider’s registration was granted by the Council, may vary, suspend or cancel the registration; and”
- (c) “if a registered training provider’s registration was not granted by the Council, may”: (i) “order the provider not to operate in this State; or” (ii) “by order, impose conditions restricting the provider’s operations in this State.”
The standards come by reference. The General Regulations 2009 (as at 11 July 2024) define “registration standards” as “the Standards for NVR Registered Training Organisations made under the Commonwealth Act section 185”, and regulation 8(2) says the Council “must apply” the registration standards and the accreditation standards. A reference in those standards to an RTO includes a WA registered provider.
Section 58A sets out offences. Among them, a person must not claim to provide an approved VET course when not a registered training provider, but that does not apply to a person who, “under an arrangement with a registered training provider, provides an approved VET course on behalf of the provider while being monitored by the provider.” Section 58A(5), on claiming to be a registered training provider when not one, or when ordered not to operate in the State, ends: “Penalty: a fine of $10 000.” The Council may also cancel a qualification conferred by mistake, on false or misleading information, or in breach of the Act (s 58E), and a person dissatisfied with a decision under section 58B, 58C or 58E may appeal to the Board, by a written notice stating the decision and the grounds, within 21 days after being notified; an appeal can only be made on the ground that the Council was required to apply a guideline issued under section 13 or a criterion prescribed under section 58(c) and erred in applying it or failed to apply it (s 58G).