In December 2023, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) was amended to introduce limitations on fixed term contracts, making it unlawful for employers to engage employees on term contracts in the same role beyond two years (including any extensions or renewals) or two consecutive contracts.
Shortly after, regulations were released to provide further specific exceptions to the limitations. These regulations applied to certain contracts with employees engaged in organised sport, live performance, higher education or engaged by international event organising bodies in high performance sport and non-government funded philanthropic entities and were only to apply for a certain period of time.
In November 2024, the regulations were extended for a further period of time. Exceptions were also introduced for charity and not-for-profit sector employees, medical or health research sector employees and public hospital employees.
More recently, the Fair Work Amendment (Fixed Term Contracts) Regulations 2025 (2025 Regulations) commenced on 1 November 2025. The 2025 Regulations now:
- entered into between an employer and employee who is covered by the Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020 or the Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020; and
- for certain public hospital employees.
In addition, the 2025 Regulations now also provide that for certain fixed term contracts entered into on or behalf of a philanthropic entity in the charity and not‑for‑profit sector and medical or health research sector, the exceptions will only apply if the:
(a) philanthropic entity’s total annual revenue is taken to be $100,000,000 or more; or
(b) philanthropic entity is part of a reporting group (within the meaning of the Australian Charities and Not‑for‑profits Commission Act 2012) whose total annual revenue for the reporting group is $100,000,000 or more.
New Fixed Term Contract Information Statement (FTCIS)
A new FTCIS has now been released and is now available for download here. The FTCIS needs to be given when an employee enters, or as soon as possible after entering, the fixed term contract.
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