New federal laws

People who pay income tax receive changes to tax rates, offsets, or thresholds affecting their take-home pay.

Replaces the personal income tax rate tables from the 2024-25 year: 16% up to $45,000, 30% to $135,000, 37% to $190,000 and 45% above, with matching changes for non-residents and working holiday makers.

5 Mar 2024·In force

People paying the Medicare levy will see changes to how much they contribute to fund the health system.

Raises the income thresholds below which people pay no Medicare levy — the individual threshold from $24,276 to $26,000 and the family threshold from $40,939 to $43,846 — starting with the 2023-24 income year.

5 Mar 2024·In force

Employees and employers in private businesses face changes to casual employment rules, minimum entitlements, and bargaining arrangements.

Redefines casual employment around the real substance of the working relationship, creates a right to disconnect outside working hours, sets minimum standards for gig economy and road transport workers, and raises penalties for underpaying staff.

26 Feb 2024·In force

Employers sponsoring migrant workers face stricter compliance obligations and potential penalties for breaches of employment standards.

20 Feb 2024·In force

Employees and employers face changes to unfair dismissal rules, casual work protections, and bargaining rights in the workplace.

Requires labour hire workers to be paid at least the host employer's enterprise agreement rate, makes deliberate wage theft a criminal offence, creates an industrial manslaughter offence in Commonwealth work health and safety law, and adds a PTSD presumption for first responders.

14 Dec 2023·In force

People accessing Australian government services, banks, and telcos will need to verify their identity using approved digital methods.

Puts Australia's identity matching services on a statutory footing — document verification, face verification and identification, and a national database of state driver licence images. Requests must come through privacy agreements, and unauthorised access by departmental staff is an offence.

14 Dec 2023·In force

Landholders and environmental managers can enter voluntary agreements to restore ecosystems, with eligibility for funding and tax incentives for nature repair work.

14 Dec 2023·In force

People who smoke or use tobacco and vaping products face new restrictions on sales, packaging, flavours, and advertising.

Consolidates Australia's tobacco laws into a single Act and extends them to e-cigarettes: bans advertising and sponsorship, sets plain packaging and product standards, permanently bans some products, and requires companies to report ingredients, sales volumes and marketing spend.

14 Dec 2023·In force

People who gamble online or use credit to gamble face new restrictions on how they can pay and how much they can lose.

11 Dec 2023·In force

People who display certain symbols can face criminal penalties, and the definition of terrorist offences is widened.

Makes it an offence punishable by up to 12 months' imprisonment to publicly display Nazi symbols or terrorist organisation symbols, or to perform the Nazi salute, with defences for religious, academic, artistic, journalistic and law enforcement purposes. Trading in such goods is also banned.

11 Dec 2023·In force

People seeking visas, serious offenders in immigration proceedings, and visa holders face changes to bridging visa rules and removal processes.

Creates offences carrying up to five years' imprisonment for people on removal-pending bridging visas who breach conditions such as working with children, approaching schools, or contacting victims, and allows courts to make community safety detention or supervision orders.

7 Dec 2023·In force

People who farm using irrigation, households drawing river water, and industries relying on river supplies face changes to water allocation rules.

Requires the Minister to recover an extra 450 gigalitres of environmental water for the Murray-Darling by the end of 2027 and removes the cap on water buybacks. Adds Indigenous considerations to Basin planning, and insider trading and market manipulation rules to water markets.

7 Dec 2023·In force

Australian citizens can now formally renounce their citizenship, and the government can cancel citizenship of people who fight for hostile foreign forces.

Moves the power to strip Australian citizenship from the Minister to the courts. A court may order it when sentencing someone to at least three years for terrorism, treason, espionage or similar offences, and cannot do so if it would leave them stateless.

7 Dec 2023·In force

Exporters of live animals must comply with animal welfare requirements set by an inspector with new powers to enforce standards.

4 Dec 2023·In force

People with disability and providers of disability support services face changes to how services are funded, planned, and delivered.

Sets up the framework for Commonwealth funding of disability supports outside the NDIS. Funded providers must follow a code of conduct, hold compliance certificates for regulated activities, and run complaints and incident management systems.

4 Dec 2023·In force

People receiving social security payments face changes to eligibility rules, payment rates, or reporting requirements.

Amends social security and related legislation with a package of miscellaneous measures. The Federal Register has no retrievable text for this Act, so the specific changes aren't determinable here.

28 Nov 2023·In force

People receiving unemployment and disability payments face changes to their reporting requirements, participation obligations, or payment rates.

Raises the pensioner work bonus balance cap from $7,800 to $11,800 and gives pensioners a $4,000 starting balance, and doubles the period someone keeps concession card access after employment income ends, from 12 weeks to 24.

28 Nov 2023·In force

Companies and researchers using ocean-based climate technologies may face different rules about what they can release into the sea.

27 Nov 2023·In force

Australians working or studying in Pacific island nations may face changes to their social security payments and eligibility.

27 Nov 2023·In force

People prosecuted under criminal law and organisations subject to criminal investigation face changes to evidence rules, sentencing, and police powers.

27 Nov 2023·In force

People charged with terrorism offences, security agencies conducting investigations, and anyone detained under counter-terrorism powers face changed legal obligations and procedures.

Extends counter-terrorism stop, search and seizure powers to December 2026 and adds safeguards: police must tell people of their right to complain, security zone declarations expire after 28 days, and emergency entries without a warrant must be reviewed afterwards.

24 Nov 2023·In force

People in bankruptcy are affected by changes to how long they remain bankrupt and the conditions under which they can be discharged.

22 Nov 2023·In force

Workers and employers in industries with respiratory disease risks, plus medical professionals, must notify and report occupational respiratory disease cases to a national registry.

22 Nov 2023·In force

People on bridging visas (temporary visas while awaiting migration decisions) face stricter work and study conditions.

17 Nov 2023·In force

Family law practitioners, courts, and child safety agencies can share information more readily in cases involving family violence or child abuse.

6 Nov 2023·In force

People in family law disputes, including those seeking divorce, parenting orders, or property settlements, face changes to how courts handle their cases.

Rewrites how family courts decide a child's best interests, leading with safety, and removes the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility. Adds specific considerations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and requires independent children's lawyers to meet the child.

6 Nov 2023·In force

University students and graduates face changes to how their degrees are funded, what they pay, and their loan repayment obligations.

Extends demand-driven university places to all Indigenous students rather than only those from regional or remote areas, and requires higher education providers to have and follow a policy for supporting students at risk of failing, with civil penalties for non-compliance.

6 Nov 2023·In force

People applying for Australian visas will pay a new fee before their application is formally processed.

26 Oct 2023·In force

People seeking to migrate to Australia face changed visa rules; asylum seekers arriving by boat may be sent to other countries; employers sponsoring migrant workers face new requirements.

Allows some visas to be allocated by ballot: people register, pay a charge, and are selected at random before they may apply. Protection, humanitarian and safe haven visas are expressly excluded.

26 Oct 2023·In force

People saving to buy their first home, and those receiving rental assistance or living in public housing, face changes to tax treatment and housing support.

Renames the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation as Housing Australia and restructures its functions into financing, guarantee and capacity building roles, adds Indigenous housing expertise to its board, and extends the Commonwealth guarantee of its liabilities.

28 Sept 2023·In force

The title doesn't say who this affects; technical amendments typically correct definitions or administrative processes rather than change policy.

28 Mar 2024·In force·Routine legislation

This Act makes drafting changes to other laws to align with the new identity verification system.

14 Dec 2023·In force·Routine legislation

This Act makes technical changes to other laws to align them with the Nature Repair Market Act 2023.

14 Dec 2023·In force·Routine legislation

The title doesn't say who this affects; it appears to concern administrative arrangements for Infrastructure Australia's operations.

14 Dec 2023·In force·Routine legislation

This Act makes supporting changes to other laws and provides transitional rules to align with the main tobacco regulation legislation.

14 Dec 2023·In force·Routine legislation

8 Dec 2023·In force·Routine legislation

This Act makes technical amendments to other laws to align with changes to disability services legislation, rather than changing policy itself.

28 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

28 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

The title doesn't say who this affects; it appears to amend court procedures or judicial protections rather than change rights or services for ordinary people.

27 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

This Act amends treasury legislation to implement various technical and administrative changes across tax, superannuation, and government payment schemes.

27 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

24 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

17 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

The title doesn't say who this affects; it appears to concern administrative changes to intellectual property regulation.

17 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

6 Nov 2023·In force·Routine legislation

28 Sept 2023·In force·Routine legislation