Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

I'm sure the minister is gratified that he has the opportunity to participate in a committee process in relation to the Administrative Review Tribunal (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2024. By way of recommencement of the matters that we were discussing when we were previously in committee—we were looking at a number of matters—first, we were looking at the performance of the ART since it was stood up in October last year. In particular, we were looking at how the case backlog has actually worsened. It has gone backwards, rather than been improved, under the new legislation.

Another matter which we were looking at was the deeply concerning issue relating to the operation of section 25 of the Administrative Review Tribunal Act, where public servants doing their job, faithfully, in the Department of Social Services who were involved in child support payments were having to redact hundreds and hundreds of pages of material because of the way section 25 operated under the act or new documents had to be provided to the ART within 28 days—and there was no exception. This was causing major, major issues for the Department of Social Services, particularly in relation to material where the department was concerned. The public servants performing this very, very important task were concerned that unredacted material may cause or have the danger of causing issues in relation to family matters. I note that that issue had been ventilated.

We heard from the minister who was participating in the committee process at the time that the government became aware of this in July and August last year. The government became aware of the fact that public servants in the Department of Social Services were having to redact hundreds and hundreds of pages of material because section 25 of the Administrative Review Tribunal Act wasn't fit for purpose. It wasn't fit for purpose because there were additional documents being added to those files on a regular basis, and all of that material had to be provided to the tribunal within 28 days. This was causing huge logistical issues. But this was not a matter which was explained or referred to by the government, although it was the express basis for the amendment contained in the bill. This was a matter which was brought to the opposition's attention by certain parties who were concerned by what they were seeing. So, when we as the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee sat to review this legislation, we had absolutely no idea that this issue was occurring and that section 25 was causing these problems.

As I said previously, I respect the fact that this matter doesn't fall within the usual portfolio responsibilities of the minister and he needs to rely on the advice of the Attorney in this regard. I also respect the fact that he has, in good faith, sought further information during the course of this committee process and provided that further information to us during the course of the committee process. I thank the minister—through you, Acting Deputy President—for that cooperation in that regard.

But it is deeply disturbing that such an important issue was left to linger from July or August last year to February 2025, where we now are. I say with due respect to the minister—through you, Acting Deputy President—that it is no answer to say that the opposition is causing further delay because we're simply taking advantage of the appropriate scrutiny processes of this chamber to properly scrutinise the bill. We've been in committee for perhaps 1½ hours or two hours, but you had seven months to fix this matter and bring it before the Senate so we could fix it, and the Albanese Labor government failed miserably to do that.

Minister, I would like to refer to some discussion we had previously in the committee process and to some answers which you gave during the committee process. For the benefit of the Hansard record, I would like to start by following up on some of the points that were made previously about the massive blowout in timeframes for the protection case load in the AAT. That blowout in case times was one of the many instances I refer to where the actual current performance of the ART has materially deteriorated compared to the performance of the AAT, on an objective consideration of the data. For those who weren't in the chamber, here is one example I gave, and I'll quote my previous comment:

I'll move on to another indicator with respect to whether or not the new ART is dealing quickly and fairly with cases that are coming before it, which was one of the aspirations of the Attorney when he introduced this reform—

'quickly and fairly', which I think the minister rightly referred to. I continue my quote:

If we look into the migration and protection case loads in particular, when the coalition left office, the median time to finalise a refugee matter was 113 weeks. The median time to finalise a protection matter under the Administrative Review Tribunal has now blown out to 232 weeks.

Here is the question I put to the minister:

Again, Minister, I ask you: What went wrong? Why has the timeline doubled?

Minister, you responded. Feel free to correct the record if I in any way misquote you, but the record of your response that I have is as follows:

Again, I disagree with your assessment on this, Senator Scarr. The work that the tribunal is doing is important. The Liberals left the AAT critically underfunded. We're still getting through the backlog that you left us. There are old cases that we inherited, and, indeed, thousands of the cases that we're dealing with are more than five years old.

What the minister failed to mention, of course, was that the rushed and sloppy legislation that was pushed through this place by the Attorney affected the repeal of the Immigration Assessment Authority, which was specifically designed as a fast-track process to deal with refugee cases. When the coalition left office, the median time for resolving a refugee case was 113 weeks, but, under the Albanese Labor government reforms, that timeframe has now blown out to more than four years. In light of the evidence, do you now concede, Minister, the important role that the Immigration Assessment Authority played in bringing down timeframes for resolving refugee issues?