Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal reviews Commonwealth government decisions in areas such as migration, social services, the NDIS and veterans' affairs. It affects every component of our lives, and it's an important body of oversight over government decisions. Every year, thousands of people rely on the AAT to independently review government decisions that can have significant impacts on their lives—decisions such as whether an old Australian receives the age pension, whether a veteran is compensated for a service injury or whether a participant in the NDIS receives funding for essential support. Critically, high-quality review of government decision-making will encourage better-quality decision-making across government. It should be a virtuous cycle.

Instead, we inherited an AAT that was fatally flawed. It was stacked with Liberal cronies—some 85 former staffers, failed candidates or mates of the Liberal Party, people lacking the requisite expertise. It was bedevilled with ageing electronic systems and heading to financial oblivion from a botched amalgamation of the AAT with a hotchpotch of other tribunals by the former Liberal government. The AAT we inherited was beset with delays and a large and growing backlog of applications, often affecting some of the most vulnerable members of our community. As an example, victims of robodebt appealed to the AAT but found that decisions adverse to the Morrison government were not escalated either internally within the AAT or to the Federal Court. In other words, questions raised about the legality of robodebt in the AAT were effectively buried by the former government. I note that there were also cases where the AAT effectively rubberstamped the program's legality. Had the AAT been a robust check and balance system, robodebt might never have occurred. It might have been stopped in its tracks. As the robodebt royal commission noted:

Effective merits review is an essential part of the legal framework that protects the rights and interests of individuals; it also promotes government accountability and plays a broader … role in improving the quality and consistency of government decisions.

The NDIS is no different. In the six months before we came to government, the NDIA spent more than $28 million fighting appeals in the AAT. Over 4,500 NDIS participants had complaints stuck with the AAT, an increase of 400 per cent on the previous year. Thanks to the Minister for Government Services and Minister for the NDIS, more than 90 per cent of those cases have now been resolved, and we now have 30 per cent fewer cases being referred to the AAT in the first place.

The Attorney-General has introduced legislation—the Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023 and related bills—that would abolish the AAT and establish a new body, to be named the Administrative Review Tribunal. The tribunal would be user focused, efficient, accessible, independent and fair, with a focus on addressing backlogs and earlier resolution. The Albanese government will also restore the oversight body for the AAT, called the Administrative Review Council. Abolished by the Abbott government in 2015, the ARC—the council—will be re-established in accordance with a key recommendation of the robodebt royal commission.

The Attorney-General announced that the design of a new body would be the subject of consultation beginning early last year, and it was. The bills have been informed by the outcomes of public and targeted consultation, guidance from the Administrative Review Expert Advisory Group, chaired by former High Court Justice the Hon. Patrick Keane, and close engagement across government with the AAT. In the words of the Attorney-General:

This package of legislation is transformative. It is ambitious and comprehensive—we are building an institution that is intended to serve the community and drive better decisions for many years to come.

The tribunal would be required to pursue the objective of providing administrative review that is fair and just, that resolves applications in a timely manner with as little formality and expense as necessary, that is accessible and responsive to the diverse needs of parties, that improves the transparency and quality of government decision-making, and that promotes public trust and confidence in the tribunal.

A central feature of the new tribunal will be a transparent and merits based selection process for the appointment of non-judicial members—a merits based focus, not 'jobs for mates'. Structure and membership will include: a president; deputy presidents, both judicial and non-judicial; senior members; and general members. The streamlined membership structure responds to feedback that the AAT's seven membership levels are confusing and arbitrary. The tribunal will be made up of eight jurisdictional areas—general; intelligence and security; migration; the National Disability Insurance Scheme, or NDIS; protection; social security; taxation; and business—as well as veterans and workers' compensation. This structure builds in flexibility to ensure an enduring responsive foundation for the tribunal's work into the future.

A Tribunal Advisory Committee will provide strong collective leadership to the tribunal, comprising the president, the principal registrar and the jurisdictional area leaders. The committee will ensure that those leaders are individually and jointly responsible for promoting the tribunal's objective. A transparent and merits based selection process for members is provided for in the bill. The suitability of prospective members will be assessed through a competitive merits based and publicly advertised process. We welcome applicants to these roles. The assessment will consider how well candidates fulfil the skills, expertise, experience and knowledge required to be a member of the tribunal, as you would expect in any high office. This assessment must also consider the need for a diversity of skills, expertise and lived experience, noting that the tribunal should reflect the community it serves.

Through significant reforms to the Migration Act, the bill would assist to reduce delays and backlogs in migration and refugee matters, increase fairness, and support the integrity of the migration system. One of the provisions also contains measures to enable the transition from the AAT to the new tribunal. This includes transitioning active, pending and potential case loads, including matters before the courts, to minimise disruption and to maintain review rights. For those who are in the process of having a decision reviewed by the AAT and who may request a review as the new body, the ART, is being set up, these cases will be transitioned to the new body automatically. There will be no need to submit a new application.

These reforms to the AAT build upon a broad integrity agenda that we brought to office, and the centrepiece of course is the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the NACC. However, this ART that we will be establishing is a really important measure because it acts as an important check and balance to executive power where the voices of ordinary Australians will be elevated, and due process will be followed so that these Australians are not left by the wayside, as happened with robodebt. Robodebt, which had a royal commission, is a stain on Australia's history and one that we do not want to repeat. Reforming important oversight bodies like the AAT into a new body with a spill of the current members enables a complete reset and a process of healing to occur in this nation. Once the new tribunal has been established, all ongoing and non-ongoing Public Service employees employed by the AAT at the time will transition to this new tribunal on equivalent terms and conditions.

I commend this package of bills to the House. It's the most important reform of the federal system of administrative review for decades, to restore integrity to, and to improve the effectiveness of, the review system for Commonwealth decisions. I thank the House.

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