Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I note the minister did not answer any questions about the departmental website and the links to the Liberal Party, the promotion of the minister personally and donations to the Liberal Party, and I am going to give him another opportunity to answer those questions.

Minister, I am going to ask you some questions in relation to your recent comments and your campaign against the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The AAT describe themselves as 'a one-stop shop for the independent review of a wide range of decisions made by the Australian government'. They aim to make the process 'accessible, fair, just, economical, informal and quick'. They review decisions 'on the merits', which means they take a fresh look at the issues. The AAT must 'make the legally correct decision or, where there can be more than one correct decision, the preferable decision'. The minister was quoted as saying:

I think for people to believe that magistrates or judges or tribunal members don't bring their own personal views to matters is a nonsense …

It is in black and white on the AAT website that the AAT must make the legally correct decision. Minister, on 15 May this year a story appeared in the Herald Sun. The story revealed details about six Iranian refugees and decisions made by the AAT on their cases. Stories appeared across the print media, internet and TV calling these people fake refugees. In a public statement, the AAT confirmed:

The decisions referred to in today’s articles have not been published and are not publically available.

That suggests that whoever released the information to a journalist may have breached the Privacy Act.

During Senate estimates, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection confirmed that advice on these cases has been provided to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Minister, did you or your office authorise the leak to the media of confidential decisions of the AAT? Will the minister uphold the integrity of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and immediately investigate the leaking of these confidential decisions of the AAT? What does the minister have against members of the AAT, who are making decisions based on law? Why does the minister persist in criticising members of the judiciary? Will the minister apologise to the members of the AAT, whose integrity and judgements have been questioned as part of the minister's unnecessary smear campaign? If decisions made by the AAT on six Iranian refugees were so bad, why has the minister failed to lodge a judicial review with the Federal Circuit Court or the Federal Court against the AAT's decisions?

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