NT Employers Cannot Hire Unregistered Teachers and Board Must Follow Minister's Orders

Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025

25 Nov 2025: Passed by Parliament and signed off by the governor.

This bill kicks in: TBA

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Topics

early childhood education education education standards professional licensing teacher certification teacher registration teaching qualifications

Introduced by: The Hon Jo Hersey MLA (CLP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

Employers cannot hire or engage unregistered people to work as teachers.
The Board can decide an unregistered person is competent to teach if the subject they teach is not taught in English.
Existing early childhood teachers get a temporary exemption period.
The Education Minister can give directions to the Teacher Registration Board.
The Board can register people with historic qualifications if they have enough teaching experience.
The bill updates the rules for how teachers apply for registration and how the Board renews those registrations.
The bill replaces the rules for which qualifications are required for teacher registration.

The Debate

What different members said when this bill was debated:

Jo Hersey CLP

“Madam Speaker, I present a Bill titled Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, Serial 41, and table the explanatory statement. I move that the Bill be now read a first time. This Bill amends the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Act 2004 and the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Regulations 2004.”

Official source →

Chanston Paech ALP

“Madam Speaker, the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 seeks to amend information-sharing arrangements, broaden the scope of teacher registration to include early childhood educators and amend the registration requirements and standards to include languages other than English.”

Official source →

Laurie Zio CLP

“Madam Speaker, I believe that the 2025 amendments in the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Legislation Amendment Bill mark a pivotal moment for education in the Territory.”

Official source →

Tanzil Rahman CLP

“Madam Speaker, the focus areas of this legislation are child safety, regulatory integrity, efficiencies and alignment with national frameworks. Some of those matters are set to be addressed upon commencement. Other matters will be delayed, like clauses 29 to 38. My colleague the Member for Fannie Bay already neatly summarised a lot of the strengths of the legislation.”

Official source →

Steven Edgington CLP

“Madam Speaker, I support the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. The Bill introduces many important reforms that I am confident will have a positive impact on the next generation of Territorians.”

Official source →