RTO.au / Using this

Where an authoritative answer actually lives

A short hierarchy, and folklore is not on it.

The order of authority is generally the legislation, then the standards made under it, then any conditions imposed on the specific registration, then the regulator's published guidance, then funding contracts as a separate obligation.

Regulator guidance explains how a requirement is assessed and does not create requirements, which matters when guidance and standard appear to differ. The standard governs and the guidance tells you how it will be examined.

Conditions imposed on an individual registration are frequently forgotten and override general assumptions. A provider under a condition has obligations that no general source will tell it about.

Funding contracts are a separate legal instrument and can require more than the standards, prohibit things the standards permit, and impose their own reporting. Compliance with one is not compliance with the other.

What is not on the hierarchy: an auditor's verbal comment, a consultant's assertion, a post in a group, and anything that begins with the observation that everybody does it this way.

The other item that sits outside the standards and binds anyway is anything the provider has published: marketing claims, course information and enrolment terms are representations, and consumer law applies to them independently of any training regulator.