Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions Act 2026

This Act, titled the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions Act 2026, operates largely as a consequential and transitional instrument. Its principal mechanical effects are:

• It repeals the whole of the Public Lending Right Act 1985, by the single item in Schedule 1: "Public Lending Right Act 1985: 1 The whole of the Act. Repeal the Act." (Schedule 1, item 1). That repeal is not unconditional; Schedule 2 contains a package of savings and transitional provisions that preserve certain rights, decisions and payments under the old legislative scheme for a defined transitional period.

• It stages commencement. Sections 1 to 3 and anything in the Act not otherwise addressed in the commencement table come into force on the day the Act receives Royal Assent, identified in the table as 20 May 2026 (s 2 and the commencement table). The Schedules (Schedules 1 and 2) commence at the same time as section 3 of the separate Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026 commences, and include the qualification that the Schedule provisions do not commence at all if that section does not commence (s 2, commencement table, item 2).

• Schedule 2 preserves, in a limited way, the old Public Lending Right Scheme and the old committee for certain entitlements, decisions and payments that arose or were made before the Schedule 2 commencement (Schedule 2, item 2, subitems (1)-(4)). It also transfers the functions and powers of the old committee to the "new committee" (Schedule 2, item 2(2)).

• Schedule 2 transitions sitting members of the old committee to the new committee and carries over their remaining terms and conditions (Schedule 2, item 3). It provides that earlier periods of service on the old committee count towards the nine‑year limit in the new Act for committee service (Schedule 2, item 4).

• Schedule 2 treats pending claims under the old scheme as claims under the new scheme (Schedule 2, item 5), preserves the annual reporting requirement for the last financial year before commencement (Schedule 2, item 6), and grants the Minister a power to make transitional rules by legislative instrument with express limits on what those rules may not do (Schedule 2, item 7).

Mechanically, the Act operates as a bridge between the Public Lending Right Act 1985 and the new Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026. It removes the 1985 statute from the statute book but carries forward selected operational items so that entitlements, decisions and payments do not fall into a legal limbo. It also creates direct statutory links between individual decisions under the old scheme and their continued administration under the new statutory framework by treating functions and pending claims as transferred and by specifying how payments will be handled during the transition.

The Act contains only consequential and transitional measures; it does not set substantive new payment rules itself. Instead, many operative effects are dependent on the commencement and content of the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026, which this Act repeatedly references (for example Schedule 2 definitions and the commencement contingency in s 2).

The Act also includes the formal record of the Minister’s second reading speeches (dates in both Houses), but no other extrinsic materials. The Schedule 2 transitional power to make legislative instruments is limited by express prohibitions (Schedule 2, item 7(2)), which will affect how administrative arrangements are made.

The Act uses a small number of defined and cross-referenced concepts to achieve its transitional purpose. These concepts and their statutory mechanics are central to how the repeals and savings operate.

• New committee and old committee: Schedule 2 defines "new committee" as "the Public and Educational Lending Rights Committee established by section 10 of the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026" and "old committee" as "the Public Lending Right Committee established under section 7 of the Public Lending Right Act 1985" (Schedule 2, item 1). The Act thus anchors the transitional legal relationships to two institutional entities: the old administrative body under the 1985 Act and the new body under the 2026 Act.

• Old scheme: This is defined as "the Public Lending Right Scheme 2016 (as affected by any modification of that scheme)" (Schedule 2, item 1). That definition makes clear the Act intends to keep alive operational aspects of the 2016 scheme, as it stood immediately before commencement, for certain specified purposes.

• Limited continued operation: Schedule 2 item 2 sets out the precise categories in which the old Act and old scheme continue to apply after commencement. These are fourfold: (a) entitlements to payment that arose before commencement; (b) initial decisions of the old committee made before commencement in connection with a claim; (c) entitlements that arose on or after commencement because of later decisions, tribunal decisions or court decisions related to the initial decision; and (d) payments made under the old scheme before, on or after commencement (Schedule 2, item 2(1)(a)-(d)). This construct distinguishes between entitlements and new eligibility after commencement: entitlement that already exists is protected; new entitlements under the old legislative criteria are not frozen in perpetuity.

• Transfer of functions and powers: Schedule 2 item 2(2) states that any function or power conferred on the old committee is "taken, on and after that commencement, to be a function or power conferred on the new committee." This is a statutory transfer of authority to continue administering legacy items under the new institutional structure.

• Time limit on payments: Schedule 2 item 2(3) provides a cutoff: subject to limited exceptions, a payment under the old scheme "must not be made after the third 30 June after the commencement of this item." The exceptions are enumerated in item 2(4): correction of underpayments under subsection 25(2) of the old scheme, decisions of the Administrative Review Tribunal, and court orders. Thus, the Act imposes a defined time boundary on continued payments under the repealed regime, with specified judicial and administrative exceptions.

The Act identifies and affects a limited set of actors by name and function. The statutory text itself makes the parties and institutional actors easily identifiable.

• Authors and other "persons" with an entitlement to a payment under the old scheme: Schedule 2 item 2(1)(a) preserves "a person’s entitlement to a payment under the old scheme that arose before that commencement." The Act therefore directly affects anyone who, before the relevant commencement, had an entitlement under the Public Lending Right Scheme 2016.

• Claimants with pending claims: Schedule 2 item 5 treats claims under the old scheme that were made before commencement but not decided as claims under section 8 of the new Act. Therefore, individuals or entities who had unresolved claims on commencement are affected because their claims are migrated into the new scheme's statutory framework.

• Members of the old committee: Schedule 2 item 3 transitions sitting members of the Public Lending Right Committee to become members of the new Public and Educational Lending Rights Committee. It does so by statutory deeming of appointment and continuation of terms and conditions. Members who held office under specified paragraphs of the 1985 Act are taken to hold office under corresponding paragraphs of the new Act and to continue for the balance of their term.

• The new committee and relevant agency officials: The new committee, defined in Schedule 2 item 1, is vested, after commencement, with functions and powers previously held by the old committee (Schedule 2, item 2(2)). This affects the new committee's workload and legal authority to decide legacy matters and makes it the continuing decision-maker for inherited functions.

• The Minister: Schedule 2 item 7 vests the Minister with an express power to make transitional rules by legislative instrument. The Minister’s power is constrained by the express prohibitions in item 7(2), which shape the Minister’s discretion.

• The Administrative Review Tribunal and courts: The Schedule references decisions of the Administrative Review Tribunal and orders of a court as triggers that can generate entitlements or exceptions to the payment cutoff (Schedule 2, item 2(1)(c)(ii)-(iii) and item 2(4)(b)-(c)). These bodies are implicated as adjudicative mechanisms that can sustain or create payment obligations beyond the otherwise applicable time limits.

• Government finance and appropriation bodies: Item 7(2)(d) states transitional rules may not "set an amount to be appropriated from the Consolidated Revenue Fund under an appropriation in this Act." This implicates agencies involved with appropriations and public finance: any financial arrangements for transitional payments must be made through normal appropriation processes, not by transitional rules.

The Act is structured as a transitional framework that creates certain rights to continued administration and sets duties for institutional actors. The following paragraphs identify the principal statutory rights and duties and point to the clauses that create them.

Rights preserved for individuals:

• Entitlement preservation: A person’s entitlement to a payment under the old scheme that arose before commencement continues to exist after commencement (Schedule 2, item 2(1)(a)). That language secures the substantive right to be paid for entitlements that existed before the transition.

• Decision continuity: An initial decision of the old committee made before commencement in connection with a claim is preserved (Schedule 2, item 2(1)(b)). That gives the affected person the right to have the decision remain operative and potentially to seek reconsideration, review or further administrative or judicial action depending on the preserved decision.

• Migration of pending claims: A pending claim under the old scheme that was undecided at commencement is taken to be a claim under section 8 of the new Act (Schedule 2, item 5). This creates an entitlement-right to continued consideration of the claim, but under the procedural structure of the new Act.

• Post-commencement entitlements arising from later decisions: If a later decision by the old committee upon reconsideration, or a tribunal or court decision, creates an entitlement on or after commencement, that entitlement is preserved (Schedule 2, item 2(1)(c)-(d)). This retains the rights that are derivative of earlier decisions.

Duties and institutional obligations:

• Transfer of functions and powers: The Act makes it a duty (in the sense of legal effect) that any function or power conferred on the old committee is taken to be a function or power conferred on the new committee after commencement (Schedule 2, item 2(2)). This imposes an operational obligation on the new committee to exercise inherited functions.

• Payment time limit: The Act sets a duty-bound limit on payments: subject to listed exceptions, a payment under the old scheme "must not be made after the third 30 June after the commencement of this item" (Schedule 2, item 2(3)). Administrators must therefore ensure payments under the old scheme cease after that statutory cutoff unless an exception applies.

The Act contains no novel criminal offences, civil penalties or enforcement mechanisms of its own. It is primarily transitional and consequential. Nonetheless, the Act shapes enforcement architecture in several specific ways:

• No new offences or penalties by transitional rules: Schedule 2 item 7(2)(a) emphatically provides that Transitional Rules "may not do the following: create an offence or civil penalty." This forecloses the use of the Minister’s transitional legislative instrument power to establish criminal or civil sanctioning mechanisms. Any enforcement or penalty regime therefore must remain within existing law and cannot be newly manufactured through transitional instruments under this Act.

• Administrative decision-making and review continuation: The Act preserves initial decisions of the old committee and recognises later decisions, reconsiderations, and tribunal and court determinations (Schedule 2, item 2(1)(b)-(c)). Enforcement in the sense of resolving disputes about payment entitlements is therefore anchored in administrative decision-making and the existing administrative law review channels (specifically listing the Administrative Review Tribunal and courts). The Act does not alter the existence of those review paths; rather, it ensures they remain effective in relation to affected claims.

• Time-limited monetary obligation and its exceptions: Schedule 2 item 2(3) establishes a statutory time bar on making payments under the old scheme "after the third 30 June after the commencement of this item," subject to enumerated exceptions (Schedule 2, item 2(4)). Enforcement of that prohibition is operational: administrators must not make payments beyond the prescribed date unless an exception applies. The exceptions include correcting underpayments under subsection 25(2) of the old scheme and tribunal or court decisions/orders (Schedule 2, item 2(4)(a)-(c)). The Act therefore places a legal constraint on officials administering payments, with the Administrative Review Tribunal and courts acting as recognised pathways to secure payments beyond the cutoff.

• Appropriation and finance constraints: The transitional rules may not "set an amount to be appropriated from the Consolidated Revenue Fund under an appropriation in this Act" (Schedule 2, item 7(2)(d)). This is an indirect enforcement constraint: transitional instruments cannot be used to commit public funds. Financial enforcement and payment obligations must therefore be managed via existing appropriation processes and not by the transitional rule-making power.

This Act is explicitly designed to operate in close relation with two other legal instruments: the Public Lending Right Act 1985 (which it repeals) and the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026 (which it implements consequentially and in respect of which it provides transitional savings). The Act’s text contains direct cross-references and conditional commencement mechanics that shape its interaction with those statutes and with administrative law and appropriation processes.

Interactions with the Public Lending Right Act 1985:

• Repeal with savings: Schedule 1 repeals the whole 1985 Act. However, Schedule 2 preserves specific aspects of the old Act and the old scheme for limited purposes (Schedule 2, item 2). The interaction is therefore one of repeal plus expressly tailored preservation. The old Act’s s 19 (annual report) is continued to apply for the last financial year ending before the commencement (Schedule 2, item 6).

• Reference to internal provisions of the old scheme: The Act refers to subsection 25(2) of the old scheme as an exception to the time limit on payments (Schedule 2, item 2(4)(a)). That means that the application of this Act depends on provisions in the old scheme and signals the legislative intention to preserve mechanisms for correcting underpayments that the old scheme already provided.

Interaction with the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026:

• Dependent commencement: The commencement of Schedules 1 and 2 is tied to the commencement of section 3 of the new Act. Schedule 1 and 2 "commence at the same time as section 3 of the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026 commences. However, the provisions do not commence at all if that section does not commence" (s 2, commencement table, item 2). That cross-Act dependency creates an operational interlock: the repeal and transitional provisions depend on the new Act being brought into force.

• Definitions and re‑characterisation of pending claims: Schedule 2 treats pending claims under the old scheme as claims made under section 8 of the new Act (Schedule 2, item 5). That migratory rule establishes a statutory bridge from the old statutory regime into the procedural framework of the new Act. The practical effect depends on the content of section 8 of the new Act, which is not reproduced here.

The text provided is the enacted text of the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions Act 2026 as originally passed. The Act contains its own commencement table (section 2) and a note that the commencement table relates only to provisions of this Act "as originally enacted" and "will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this Act" (s 2, final paragraph). The features relevant to amendment history from the text are:

• Enactment timing and initial commencement: Sections 1 to 3 and uncategorised provisions commence on Royal Assent, shown as 20 May 2026 in the commencement table. Schedules 1 and 2 are set to commence at the same time as section 3 of the new Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026 commences, with a proviso that those Schedules do not commence at all if that section does not commence (s 2, commencement table). These details reflect the initial legislative staging and the reliance on the companion Act’s implementation timeline.

• Repeal of the 1985 Act is effected by Schedule 1, item 1. There is no saving clause in Schedule 1 itself; rather, the saving and transitional mechanics are contained in Schedule 2.

• Schedule 2 contains a set of transitional provisions that specify how particular pre-commencement decisions, entitlements and committee memberships are treated after commencement. These provisions are the core of the Act’s transitional design and together constitute the primary "amendment" function of the instrument,amending legal relationships by statutory deemings and transfer of functions, rather than by substantive policy changes.

• The Act includes references to the Minister’s second reading speeches in both Houses (House of Representatives on 1 April 2026 and Senate on 14 May 2026). The speeches are recorded parenthetically at the end of the Act. While not an amendment, their inclusion documents parliamentary debate dates connected to enactment.

• The Act expressly states that "Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this Act. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this Act" (s 2(2)). That provision is a drafting note about commencement tables and does not alter substantive legal effect, but it does clarify that third-column commentary is extrinsic and not legislative text.

There is no other in-text record of prior amendments or of subsequent amending instruments. The Act as provided appears to be a single consolidated enactment with Schedules implementing a specific repeal and transitional plan. Any later amendment history,statutory changes, repeals, or judicial interpretation,would not be reflected in this text and would need to be checked in later versions of the statute or in legislative histories beyond the provided instrument.

The Act itself does not include a record of judicial decisions interpreting it; it is a transitional statute enacted to manage legal continuity between two statutory regimes. The only references to adjudicative bodies within the Act are stipulative and forward-looking: the Act preserves the effects of decisions of the "Administrative Review Tribunal" and "a court" for purposes of creating or sustaining entitlements under the old scheme (Schedule 2, item 2(1)(c)(ii) and (iii)) and lists tribunal and court decisions as exceptions to the time limit on payments (Schedule 2, item 2(4)(b)-(c)). There is, therefore, no case law sourced in the text.

That said, the Act structures several potential litigation or review flashpoints that lawyers and administrators would likely expect to encounter, each deriving directly from the transitional mechanics:

• Interpretation of "entitlement" and "arose": Clause Schedule 2 item 2(1)(a) preserves a "person’s entitlement to a payment under the old scheme that arose before that commencement." Litigation may involve disputes about whether an entitlement "arose" before or after commencement, particularly where eligibility depends on continuing conduct or factual accrual of rights. The Act provides a date-based anchor but not a definition of "arose," which could be the subject of judicial interpretation.

• Characterisation of initial vs later decisions: The Act treats initial decisions made before commencement (Schedule 2 item 2(1)(b)) differently from later decisions. There may be disputes about whether a particular administrative act is an "initial decision" or a "later decision" upon reconsideration. Such characterisation has consequences because later decisions can create entitlements on or after commencement (Schedule 2 item 2(1)(c)).

• Scope of the transfer of functions: The deeming provision that all functions and powers of the old committee are taken to be functions and powers of the new committee (Schedule 2 item 2(2)) may generate litigation about whether certain regulatory discretions, procedural authorities or factual determinations made under the old Act are properly continued by the new committee and whether procedural fairness obligations were observed during the transfer and reconsideration processes.

• Payment cutoff and exceptions: The statutory prohibition on making payments after the third 30 June after commencement (Schedule 2 item 2(3)) will likely be relevant in any dispute about late payments. The exceptions (Schedule 2 item 2(4)) create particular arenas for litigation: whether a payment is a correction of an underpayment under subsection 25(2) of the old scheme, or whether a tribunal or court decision or order requires payment beyond the cutoff.

This Act contains several drafting and operational features that can produce surprising consequences if they are not carefully tracked. These are the principal "gotchas" drawn directly from the statutory text.

• Conditional commencements create a trap if the new Act does not commence: Schedules 1 and 2 only commence "at the same time as section 3 of the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026 commences" and, importantly, "do not commence at all if that section does not commence" (s 2, commencement table, item 2). If section 3 of the new Act fails to commence, the entire repeal and transitional package in this Act will not come into force, leaving the status quo under the 1985 Act intact. Administrative planning that assumes the repeal will proceed without confirming the new Act’s commencement risks being misplaced.

• Broad deeming of functions to the new committee may import unexpected responsibilities: Schedule 2 item 2(2) says any function or power conferred on the old committee "is taken... to be a function or power conferred on the new committee." That is wide‑ranging and could import complex obligations, liabilities and pending administrative processes into the new committee’s remit without separate statutory elaboration. The new committee’s resource, staffing, and procedural readiness to handle legacy functions may be under‑assessed.

• The third 30 June cutoff can be easy to miss: The Act provides that "a payment under the old scheme... must not be made after the third 30 June after the commencement of this item" (Schedule 2, item 2(3)), subject to three exceptions. Counting the "third 30 June" requires precise calendaring and administrative controls; failing to adhere risks unlawful payments or omission of payments where exceptions might have applied. The exceptions (corrections of underpayments and tribunal or court decisions/orders) require legal characterisation; that may be contested.

• The exceptions to the time limit rely on external provisions: One exception is "the operation of subsection 25(2) of the old scheme (about correcting underpayments)" (Schedule 2, item 2(4)(a)). Users need to identify what subsection 25(2) of the old scheme required. The text provided here does not contain the old scheme, so administrators must retrieve and apply that provision precisely. Failure to do so could result in erroneous application of the exception.

• Pending claims are migrated into a differently structured Act: Schedule 2 item 5 takes an undecided claim under the old scheme and "treats" it as a claim under section 8 of the new Act. The criteria, evidential standards and procedural protections in section 8 may differ from the old Act. Migrating a claim could alter the claimant’s strategic position and rights. This is particularly important where a claimant had procedural rights that are not identically replicated in the new Act.

This Act is essentially about administrative transition. Compliance therefore requires accurate calendar management, record-keeping, migration of procedural files, and careful use of the limited transitional rule-making power. The following is a practical compliance checklist and explanation of duties based directly on the Act’s text. Use these as information, not as prescriptive advice.

Organisational checklist for administrators and agencies:

1. Confirm commencement sequencing:

   • Verify whether section 3 of the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Act 2026 has commenced. Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of this Act only commence if that section commences (s 2, commencement table, item 2). If section 3 has not commenced, the repeal and transitional provisions do not come into force.

2. Map legacy records to the new committee:

   • Identify all entitlements, initial decisions, and unresolved claims under the old scheme as they stood at commencement. Use Schedule 2 item 2(1)(a)-(b) and item 5 as the legal basis for preserving entitlements and migrating pending claims to section 8 of the new Act.

3. Calendar the payment cutoff:

   • Calculate the "third 30 June after the commencement of this item" precisely (Schedule 2 item 2(3)). Set internal deadlines and process controls to ensure payments under the old scheme stop after that date unless an exception applies.

4. Apply exceptions carefully:

   • Establish protocols to identify payments that fall within the exceptions in Schedule 2 item 2(4): corrections under subsection 25(2) of the old scheme, Administrative Review Tribunal decisions, and court orders. Obtain legal advice where the classification is ambiguous.

5. Manage committee membership transitions:

   • Prepare formal appointment records that evidence the deemed appointment of sitting old committee members to the new committee (Schedule 2 item 3(1)-(2)). Identify members who were appointed under paragraph 9(1)(e) and 9(1)(f) of the 1985 Act and confirm they are treated under paragraphs 13(e) and 13(f) of the new Act (Schedule 2 item 3(4)-(5)).

6. Count prior service for tenure limits:

   • Record periods of service on the old committee so they count towards the nine-year limit in subsection 15(2) of the new Act (Schedule 2, item 4).