Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Regulation (legislative instrument under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992)

Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Amendment 2026 (F2026L01002), with its explanatory statement and the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Guidelines 2026

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/australia-2026-transport-standards-amendment/ · record checked 13 October 2026

  • Attorney-General of Australia; Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts
  • Federal Register of Legislation (Australian Government)

Government (Australian Government; made by the Attorney-General on 27 July 2026 and registered on 30 July 2026)

Summary

The 2026 reform of Australia's public transport accessibility rules, which keeps the existing hearing augmentation requirement for public address systems, adds signs for spaces with hearing augmentation and links some help devices and lift alarms to it.

Key findings

  • Keeps sections 26.1 (premises and infrastructure) and 26.2 (buses, coaches, ferries, trains, trams and light rail), under which an installed public address system must comply with clause 21.1 of AS 1428.2 (1992) on hearing augmentation; the explanatory statement says the changes to these sections only update drafting and do not otherwise affect their content or operation.
  • Adds section 17.3: where a space contains a hearing augmentation system, a sign must give the type of system, the area it covers and, if receivers are used, where to obtain them, with the international symbol for deafness.
  • Requires a lift's emergency warning system to include a hearing augmentation system, and a hearing loop used for it to comply with clause 3.2 of AS 1428.5 (2021); a passenger's device for requesting a boarding ramp or similar must be linked to a hearing augmentation system if it has an audio system.
  • Section 27.6 requires next-stop information visible from priority seats and allocated spaces and audible next-stop announcements in multi-stop conveyances (except taxis and aircraft), with a note pointing to section 26.2 for hearing augmentation.
  • The Guidelines 2026 registered with it say that if hearing augmentation requirements for conveyances cannot be met for technical reasons, an equivalent access process may be considered, and that assistive listening systems need testing for electromagnetic interference before deployment and maintenance every 6 to 12 months.
  • None of the three documents mentions Bluetooth or Auracast.
  • Schedule 34, section 35.14 item 4, applies section 13.4 to new premises and infrastructure and to lifts installed on or after commencement. Section 35.18 item 3 applies section 17.3 to signage installed on or after commencement.
  • The application tables for sections 13.4 and 17.3 exclude premises covered by the Premises Standards. Section 17.3 also applies to infrastructure and to buses, coaches, ferries, trains, trams and light rail. Schedule 26 retains the same premises exclusion for section 26.1 and lists those six conveyance types for section 26.2.
  • Schedule 26 and the explanatory statement's paragraphs 321-326 establish the retained hearing-augmentation reference and application tables. The amendment text does not reproduce the complete unamended public-address trigger, so the country table confines that row to the retained reference.

Limits

Read from the instrument, explanatory statement and guidelines as registered; the instrument commences after the period in which Parliament can disallow it, which had not been checked on 9 October 2026, and many provisions apply only to new conveyances or after transition periods. The content of AS 1428.2 (1992) clause 21.1 is not given in these documents; the 2022 consultation impact statement describes it as covering 10% of a vehicle's enclosed area. The 2022 proposal to move vehicles to AS 1428.5 (2021) whole-vehicle coverage does not appear in Part 26 as made.

Read the original

www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L01002/asmade

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Cited in

Cite this source

Attorney-General of Australia; Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Amendment 2026 (F2026L01002), with its explanatory statement and the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Guidelines 2026. Federal Register of Legislation (Australian Government). 30 July 2026. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L01002/asmade (accessed 13 October 2026).

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