From colonies to TEQSA: Vortices and thermals of legislative change

This paper situates, through Constitutional law, the reach of Commonwealth powers into fields of State governance in Australia. Particular attention is given to the changing ambit of the corporations power with the 2011 enactment of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act (TEQSA). The Australian constitutional system was founded on the principle of federalism, a legal-political system whereby power is shared between Commonwealth and State governments. The passing of the TEQSA Act has established an Australia-wide, standards-based, regulatory framework for national consistency in higher education. This Act was passed under the authority of the constitutional corporations power. Due attention is given to High Court of Australia determinations showing how the corporations power has reached further and further into State governance, including that of education, thus affecting public policy. By this legal narrative, I propose that the law is acting as a sword, while casting the favours of a regulatory shield, and potentially impinging on academic rights as corporate citizens, as education is caught in the vortices and thermals of legislative change.