Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023 supports the establishment of the new Administrative Review Tribunal, which will be created by the bill. This bill makes consequential and transitional amendments to 138 Commonwealth acts, covering approximately 93 per cent of the tribunal's caseload. These amendments are needed to effectively implement this significant reform.

This bill repeals the AAT Act and other legislative provisions that provide for the operation of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Subsequently, the Administrative Review Tribunal, established by the ART Bill, will replace it. This legislation contains consequential amendments to act in 14 Commonwealth portfolios. These include Social Services, Treasury, Veterans' Affairs and Home Affairs as well as matters affecting the national intelligence community.

As we've heard previously in this place, the changes in the consequential and transitional bills focus on addressing the highest-volume caseloads within the tribunal and the most complex consequential amendments. Additionally, they also make simple but essential reference changes. In late 2022, the Albanese government announced its decision to abolish the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and replace it with a new federal administrative review body, both a necessary and a significant reform.

By appointing as many as 85 former Liberal MPs, failed Liberal candidates, former Liberal staffers and other close Liberal associates without any merit based selection process—including some individuals with no relevant experience or expertise—the former government fatally compromised the AAT, undermined its independence and eroded the quality and efficiency of its decision-making.

The Albanese government inherited an AAT that is not on a sustainable financial footing, that is beset by delays, that had an extraordinarily large and growing backlog of applications and that is operating multiple ageing electronic case management systems. This is, of course, the legacy of the former government's mismanagement of the amalgamation of the AAT with the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, the Migration Review Tribunal and the Refugee Review Tribunal. This comes with the very real cost to the tens of thousands of people who rely on the AAT each year to independently review government decisions that have major, and sometimes life-altering, impacts for them. These are decisions such as whether an older Australian receives an age pension, whether a veteran is compensated for a service injury or whether a participant of the NDIS receives funding for essential support.

The Attorney-General announced that the design of the new body would be the subject of consultation that began in early 2023. This government has also made clear that AAT cases that are on foot when the AAT is abolished will be transitioned to the new body automatically.

Our government is committed to restoring trust and confidence in Australia's system of administrative review. At a time when we see research suggesting that there is very little faith in government institutions, it is very important that we are able to do what we can to restore that trust and confidence and make sure that our system of administrative review has the faith of our communities.

The work we're doing in order to do this will begin with the establishment of a new administrative review body that is user focused, that is efficient, that is accessible, that is independent and that is fair. A key aspect of this new body will be a transparent and merit based selection process for the appointment of non-judicial members. Again, I remind the House of the contrast in this model to the previous model set up by the former government, who appointed as many as 85 former Liberal MPs, failed Liberal candidates, former Liberal staffers and other close Liberal associates. This was without any merit based selection process. Of course, when this is the case, it's little wonder people would question the decision-making that emerges from such a body.

The bill before us today is our government's implementation of our commitment to establish a new federal administrative review body. The new body will be called the Administrative Review Tribunal, and it will replace the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. This bill builds on 50 years of experience, learning and broad consultation to establish a tribunal that is user focused, efficient, accessible, independent and fair. Importantly, this bill implements all three recommendations from the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee review into the performance and integrity of Australia's administrative review system, four recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme and the government response to two recommendations from the Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System.

The tribunal's objective will be to provide an independent mechanism of review that is fair and just and that resolves applications in a timely manner. It will do this with as little formality and expense as is consistent with reaching the correct or preferable decision. It will be accessible and responsive to the diverse needs of parties. It will improve the transparency and quality of decision-making. It will promote public trust and confidence in the tribunal, which is fundamental. The tribunal incorporates key features to improve merits review, including simpler and more consistent processes and an emphasis on non-adversarial approaches to resolving applications. It also incorporates a suite of powers and procedures to respond flexibly to changing case loads and help resolve cases more efficiently and effectively. It will have a simple membership structure, with clear qualification requirements and role descriptions for each level of membership.

One of the most important aspects will be to incorporate a transparent and merit based appointment process for members, which, of course, to remind the House again, contrasts with how those opposite went about things in the past. This will also be informed by the operational needs of the tribunal to ensure only the highest-quality members are appointed to these important roles—again, an aspect of this bill which I hope will be instructive for those opposite.

The ART Bill also has mechanisms to identify, escalate and report on systemic issues in administrative decision-making, including the re-establishment of the Administrative Review Council. The council will monitor the integrity of the Commonwealth administrative review system, inquire into systemic challenges in administrative law and support education and training for Commonwealth officials in administrative decision-making and administrative law.

The bill also establishes for the first time a guidance and appeals panel within the tribunal to resolve matters raising systemic issues and review tribunal decisions that may be affected by error. The guidance and appeals panel would provide a mechanism for escalating significant issues and addressing material errors in tribunal decisions. This would promote consistent tribunal decision-making and rapid responses to emerging issues both within the tribunal and from government departments and agencies.

Finally, the bill enables the tribunal to publish any decisions, subject to de-identifying and redacting sensitive information, and requires it to publish all decisions involving significant conclusions of law or with implications for Commonwealth policy or administration.

The stacking of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal under the former government was quite remarkable and quite outrageous. Again, we know that many former Liberal MPs, candidates, staffers and associates were piled into plum jobs within the AAT.

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