{"id":"BILL-ACT-db-74273","name":"Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Amendment Bill 2026","slug":"long-service-leave-portable-schemes-amendment-bill-2026","collection":"bill","jurisdiction":"act","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":"2026-05-05","administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":457656,"registerId":"BILL-ACT-db-74273:current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-05-05","status":"in_force","reasons":null,"registeredAt":"2026-05-18T02:36:57.564Z"},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"retrieval-0001","sectionType":"document_chunk","heading":"Document excerpt 1","content":"# Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Amendment Bill 2026\n\nJ2026\nAuthorised by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel—also accessible at www.legislation.act.gov.au\n20261\nTHE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY2\nFOR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY3\n4\n(As presented)5\n(Ed Cocks)6\nLong Service Leave (Portable Schemes)7\nAmendment Bill 20268\n9\n10\nA Bill for11\nAn Act to amend the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 200912\n13\n14151617\n18\nThe Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory enacts as follows:1920\n\nSection 1\npage 2 Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Amendment\nAct 2026\nAuthorised by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel—also accessible at www.legislation.act.gov.au\n1 Name of Act1\nThis Act is the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Amendment2\nAct 20263\n2 Commencement4\nThis Act commences on the first day after its notification day.5\nNote The naming and commencement provisions automatically commence on6 the notification day (see Legislation Act, s 75 (1)).7\n3 Legislation amended8\nThis Act amends the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act9\n200910\n4 New Section 13A11\ninsert12\n13A Temporary exclusion—hairdressing and13\naccommodation and food services industries14\n1) Despite this Act, an employer in:15\na) the hairdressing and beauty services industry; or16\nb) the accommodation and food services industry17\nis not an employer for the services industry.18\n2) Subsection 13A(1) applies until a day fixed by the Minister by19\ndisallowable instrument.20\n3) The Minister must not fix a day before 1 July 2027.21\n4) The Minister may fix a day for industry only after a review is22\nconducted. This review must:23\na) Be conducted by an appropriate independent party, who;24\ni) Is not, and has not at any time in the 5 years before25\nthe appointment been, an ACT Government26\nemployee or office holder.27\n\nLong Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Amendment\nAct 2026\npage 3\nAuthorised by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel—also accessible at www.legislation.act.gov.au\nii) Is not, and has not at any time in the 5 years before1\nthe appointment been, an officer or employee of—2\n(1) an organisation registered under the Fair3\nWork (Registered Organisations) Act 20094\n(Cth); or5\n(2) a peak body representing the interests of6\nemployers or employees.7\n5) The Minister must not fix a day for an industry unless the review8\nconducted under subsection 13A(4) contains a finding that9\napplying this Act to the industry is unlikely to cause material10\nadverse effects on business viability or employment in the ACT.11\n6) The Minister must table the review and a statement of reasons in12\nthe Legislative Assembly at least 9 sitting days before signing the13\ndisallowable instrument14\n7) A day may be fixed separately for each industry.15\n16\nEndnotes17\n118 Presentation speech\nPresentation speech made in the Legislative Assembly on 5 May 2026.19\n2 Notification20\nNotified under the Legislation Act on 2026.21\n3 Republications of amended laws22\nFor the latest republication of amended laws, see www.legislation.act.gov.au.23\n24\n25\n26\n27 © Australian Capital Territory 202628","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"summary":{"status_summary":"Introduced in the ACT Legislative Assembly on 5 May 2026.","complexity_score":2,"likely_questions":["What is a portable long service leave scheme and how does it currently work in the ACT?","Why are hairdressing/beauty services and accommodation/food services specifically excluded?","When will the independent review be conducted and who will conduct it?","What does 'material adverse effects on business viability or employment' mean and how will it be measured?","If the review finds no adverse effects, when would the exclusion end for each industry?"],"complexity_factors":["Temporary exclusion with a conditional trigger based on an independent review","Ministerial discretion to set different commencement dates for each industry via disallowable instrument","Requirement for review independence criteria and tabling of results"],"plain_english_summary":"The Bill temporarily excludes the hairdressing/beauty and accommodation/food services industries from portable long service leave, so their workers won’t be covered under the Act until the Minister restores coverage. The Minister may set different recommencement dates but not before 1 July 2027.\n\nRestoration requires an independent review (no recent ACT government, union or employer-peak officers) finding coverage unlikely to cause material adverse effects; the review and reasons must be tabled in the Legislative Assembly beforehand. Employers gain temporary relief; workers face delayed entitlements."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This amendment narrows the Act’s immediate coverage by creating a temporary exclusion for two named industries; it does not expand the original Act’s purposes or add new subject-matter beyond delaying application for specified industries. It changes who is covered and when (temporary deferral), but does not grow the statutory scheme beyond its original object of a portable long service leave regime."},"complexity_factors":["Single new section (13A) inserted with 7 subsections, keeping the amendment short but conditional","Two industry categories specifically listed (hairdressing & beauty services; accommodation & food services) in s 13A(1)","Ministerial discretion to fix a date by disallowable instrument (s 13A(2)) subject to a statutory earliest date (not before 1 July 2027) (s 13A(3))","Mandatory independent review required before Minister may act (s 13A(4)) and a substantive finding standard (\"unlikely to cause material adverse effects on business viability or employment\") (s 13A(5))","Detailed eligibility restrictions for the reviewer (5‑year lookback exclusions) adding conditionality (s 13A(4)(a)i–ii)","Procedural transparency requirement: review and statement of reasons must be tabled at least 9 sitting days before signing the instrument (s 13A(6))","Allowance for separate commencement dates for each industry (s 13A(7)) increasing implementation permutations","Ambiguity in key terms and standards (e.g. \"material adverse effects\", scope of \"industry\") that require interpretive work or guidance"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this amendment changes (mechanical effect)\n\n- Adds a new, temporary exclusion to the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009: employers in the hairdressing & beauty services industry and the accommodation & food services industry are, for now, not treated as \"an employer for the services industry\" under the Act (new s 13A(1)).\n- That exclusion lasts until a day the Minister sets by a disallowable instrument, but not before 1 July 2027 (ss 13A(2)–(3)).\n- The Minister can only lift the exclusion for an industry after an independent review finds that applying the Act to that industry is \"unlikely to cause material adverse effects on business viability or employment in the ACT\" (ss 13A(4)–(5)).\n- The review must be done by an independent party who has not been an ACT government employee in the past five years and who has not been an officer/employee of a registered organisation (federal industrial organisation) or an employer/employee peak body in the past five years (s 13A(4)(a)i–ii).\n- The Minister must table the review and a statement of reasons at least nine sitting days before signing the disallowable instrument that fixes the day (s 13A(6)). A different day may be fixed for each industry (s 13A(7)).\n\nWho it affects\n\n- Employers in the two named industries in the ACT: they are temporarily exempted from being subject to the portable long service leave scheme under this Act (s 13A(1)).\n- Workers employed in those industries: they will not, while the exclusion applies, gain the portable long service leave coverage that would otherwise apply under the Act.\n- The ACT Minister and the department administering the Act: they gain a conditional power to reinstate coverage after a prescribed independent review and must publish the review and reasons (ss 13A(2)–(6)).\n\nWhy the Bill matters (stated purpose and test of effects)\n\n- The Bill’s stated procedural safeguard is that the Minister may only remove the temporary exclusion after an independent review finds little risk to business viability or employment (ss 13A(4)–(5)). That is an explicit purpose-claim: to avoid imposing the scheme on industries where it would materially harm businesses or jobs.\n\nTesting that claim against practical effects, trade-offs and risks\n\n- Who pays and who benefits: while the exclusion stands, employers in the two industries avoid the direct compliance and contribution costs of joining a portable long service leave scheme (s 13A(1)). The concentrated beneficiaries are those firms; the costs are largely borne by workers in those industries (deferred or absent portability of long service leave) and by the long service leave scheme if smaller contribution pools raise sustainability concerns.\n\n- Incentives and behaviour changes: the temporary exemption reduces immediate financial pressure on employers in the affected industries and may change hiring or wage-setting decisions (employers might rely on the exemption as a cost-saving). For workers, the exemption reduces an employer-paid deferred benefit, which could shift bargaining toward higher immediate wages or other benefits, but only if labour markets allow that substitution.\n\n- Opportunity costs and distributional effect: delaying coverage for these industries delays the intended universality of portable long service leave. That is a redistribution of benefits from current and future workers in these industries to their employers (s 13A(1)–(3)). The scheme’s universality and portability goals are deferred for those cohorts.\n\n- Implementation and compliance risks: the Minister has discretion to fix the date by disallowable instrument, subject to the review and timing rules (ss 13A(2)–(6)). That creates a clear process but leaves room for political and administrative judgement about what constitutes a sufficient review and what counts as a \"material adverse effect,\" which are not further defined (s 13A(5)).\n\n- Administrative and transparency safeguards: the Bill limits who can conduct the review (independence criteria in s 13A(4)) and requires tabling the review and reasons at least nine sitting days before the disallowable instrument is signed (s 13A(6)). These measures reduce, but do not eliminate, risks of capture or opaque decision-making. The independence test excludes recent ACT government employees and recent officers/employees of registered organisations and peak bodies, but it does not exclude consultants with industry ties older than five years or other interested parties.\n\n- Legal and definitional issues: the provision permits separate dates per industry (s 13A(7)), which allows phased commencements but requires clear industry boundaries in practice. The Bill leaves the operational details—how the review will be structured, the evidence threshold for \"material adverse effects,\" and how transitional arrangements for workers will work—to the review and later instruments (ss 13A(4)–(6)). That creates uncertainty for employers and employees until the instrument is made.\n\nNet mechanical effect in one sentence\n\n- The amendment temporarily excludes hairdressing/beauty and accommodation/food services employers from being covered by the portable long service leave law until the Minister, after a prescribed independent review and subject to timing safeguards, decides to bring those industries into the scheme (ss 13A(1)–(7))."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/long-service-leave-portable-schemes-amendment-bill-2026","history":"/api/acts/long-service-leave-portable-schemes-amendment-bill-2026/history","analysis":"/api/acts/long-service-leave-portable-schemes-amendment-bill-2026/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/long-service-leave-portable-schemes-amendment-bill-2026/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/long-service-leave-portable-schemes-amendment-bill-2026/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/long-service-leave-portable-schemes-amendment-bill-2026/documents"}}