Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No doubt we'll get a nice interjection from the member for Riverina, as they play this childish game of not wanting to hear about the problems they created with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The changes in the Administrative Review Tribunal Bill are in line with the Albanese Labor government's commitment to transparency for all levels of government. But let's take a moment to consider why these changes are necessary and what has led us here today.

As members on this side of the chamber know, the former Liberal-National government's track record on integrity was appalling at best. The coalition dragged their feet and did not implement a national anti-corruption commission. Despite promising to take it to an election, they didn't do it. Despite winning an election, they never did it. The coalition were actively facilitating sports rorts, car park rorts and any other rort you can think of. The coalition wrote the book on prolific pork-barrelling, and communities across Australia suffered. Our community knows that the suburbs and towns across McEwen suffered because of the selfishness of the Liberal-National government. But now we've got a government in charge that is run by adults, and the establishment of the Administrative Review Tribunal is one of the many steps the Labor government is taking to restore the public's faith in government and its processes.

It was back in late 2022 that the Albanese government announced the decision to abolish the 'Jobs for Mates' scheme, or the old Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and replace it with a transparent new federal review body. This reform was needed after the coalition decimated the integrity of the AAT. The original body was no longer viable when we took government in 2022. The sad reality was that things were too far gone to fix what those opposite had done to the AAT. Eighty-five former Liberal and National MPs, failed candidates, former staffers and close Liberal-National associates had been appointed without a merit based process.

The member for Berowra tried to say: 'Look at the ADF. It doesn't matter what side of politics you like, you can join the ADF.' He's trying to equate AAT pork-barrelling to the ADF. But the bit the member for Berowra didn't mention is that to become a member of the ADF you have to have merit, you have to meet criteria and have qualifications, and you have to earn your place. You don't have to pay the membership fee in a Liberal Party branch or a National Party branch to get there. That's what happened. During the time of the AAT they appointed individuals with no relevant experience or expertise. The former government fatally compromised the AAT, undermined its independence, and we saw what happened. In addition to fielding accusations that they had stacked the AAT with former politicians, staffers, party supporters and donors, they ended up putting the nail in the coffin of the AAT by rushing through several non-urgent term extensions instead of leaving them to the incoming government, which is usually the case. Plum jobs worth up to $500,000 a year were extended to coalition-linked individuals to prevent the new government from overhauling what was left of the body.

To make sure we truly understand what happened, let's look at the examples. Former Liberal senator Karen Synon was first appointed to the tribunal in 2015. Her term was not due to expire until December 2023, 20 months after we got into government. However, in 2022, before Prime Minister Scott Morrison set the election date for 21 May, triggering the Commonwealth caretaker provisions, the Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash, extended this member's term until May 2027. She was a deputy president of the AAT on a salary of $500,00 because of liberal mates.

Let's have look at serial failed Liberal candidate Donna Petrovich, a name synonymous to those in our region for failure, whose term as a full-time member was extended to May 2027, again without merit or any form of consideration. (Quorum formed) Of course, they don't like hearing about this because it hurts them. It hurts them when we think about those like, as I said, Donna Petrovich, the failed Liberal candidate who had her term extended to May 2027 without merit, or Donald Morris, who worked for the Liberal Party's his entire professional life and who was granted an extension as a full-time senior member on a salary of $390,000 until May 2027. And then of course there was Andrew Nikolic, the failed member who came from Tasmania. He was another one appointed without merit, without justification. It was a job for a mate because he couldn't hold his seat. The power of the government of the day to appoint members to the tribunal to extend contracts—these contract extensions were only secured for their coalition mates.

Now, not everyone on the AAT is a coalition mate, and under that government we saw a deliberate stifling of the AAT process to stall it and to lock it up because it didn't suit the government of the day's agenda. When the then government did something wrong, which was quite often—quite regularly they did something that failed the probity test, failed the honesty test, failed the pub test, whatever you look at—they would get their Liberal mates to stall things happening there. It impacted the lives of ordinary Australians who had gone to the AAT in good faith to have their case heard. Because of what happened under the former Liberal and National coalition government, they were held up for months and even years. We had a backlog.

What else would you expect from a government that was notorious for pork-barrelling, stifling debate and the anticorruption commission? What else would you expect from a Prime Minister that had five secret ministries? None of this passes the pub test. When asked about the situation, the barrister and director of the Centre for Public Integrity, Geoffrey Watson SC, said there was no clear explanation for why the extensions had been put through, none at all. He said he wished he could be surprised. But he's not surprised because that's what you get under a coalition government—those are my words, that last bit. He said it's just evidence of a deeper and more extensive manipulation of the membership of the AAT. Our Attorney-General has detailed as a disgraceful exhibition of cronyism by the Liberal Party. Australians expect honesty and accountability and integrity from government. People's futures, as I said, were put on hold.

Sadly, this is another mess that the Albanese government has inherited—an AAT that is not on a sustainable financial footing. It's a system that is defined by deliberate unnecessary delays and an extraordinarily large backlog of applications. It's a legacy of the former government's mismanagement of public institutions. This mismanagement came at the cost of tens of thousands of people who rely on the AAT to have government decisions independently reviewed, especially when these decisions can have a life-altering impact. Whether it be older Australians receiving an age pension or a veteran being compensated for a service injury, you'd think that would be something that you'd have a lot of support for. But under the AAT it didn't. Veterans were held up, unnecessarily and deliberately, because it didn't suit the government of the day's agenda. You'd think an NDIS participant receiving funding for essential support would be non-partisan. But that was the story we had with the former government. It was all partisan politics, nothing about people and nothing about policy.

Australians deserve a body they can trust, one that upholds the values of integrity and accountability and that is acting in the best interests of Australians, not just providing jobs for political allies. This is why we are abolishing the irreversibly damaged AAT and implementing the new Administrative Review Tribunal.

Let's look in some more detail at the proposed new body. This is a system of administrative review, beginning with the establishment of a new administrative review body that is user focused, efficient, accessible, independent and fair. One of the key differences between the previous system and the one before the House is that the new Administrative Review Tribunal will have a transparent and merit based selection process for non-judicial members. This is a huge difference. As I said when the member for Berowra tried to make his false equivalence between that and the members of the ADF, that was the little bit he missed out. He missed that ADF members have to have merit based entry and so do non-judicial members of the ART. This is in stark contrast to the former government and their approach. It builds on the 50 years of experience learning in broad consultation to establish a tribunal that is user focused.

By implementing all three recommendations from the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee review into the performance and integrity of Australia's administrative review system, this bill strengthens the system. It also implements four recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme—we all know about that and the many problems it caused for Australians—and the government's response to the commission, as well as the two recommendations from the Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System. This is about creating a new tribunal that will stand the test of time and governments, whatever political persuasion, by creating a body that won't be swayed by the political whims of the day but, rather, focuses on what is the best outcome for Australians.

Ultimately, the tribunal's objective will be to provide an independent mechanism of review that is fair and just, resolves applications in a timely manner with as little formality and expense as is consistent with reaching the correct or preferable decision, is accessible and responsive to the diverse needs of parties, improves transparency and the quality of decision-making, and promotes public trust and confidence in the tribunal. To do this, the tribunal incorporates key features to improve merits review, including simpler and more consistent processes, a suite of powers and procedures to respond flexibly to changing caseloads, and a simple membership structure with clear qualifications for members. These are some of the many ways that the ART is miles ahead of what we had with the AAT.

I want to make it clear the government has been explicit in saying that the cases that are being considered when the AAT is abolished will be transitioned into the new body automatically. The new Administrative Review Tribunal will provide Australians with stronger processes to fight against government decisions that have a major impact on them. The Albanese Labor government are committed to creating fairer and more transparent and accountable government processes. We are fulfilling our election commitments—something which it would be unusual for those opposite to know about—and restoring the public's trust that got smashed to pieces under the former coalition government. This bill should have a speedy passage.

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