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

I should note that I acknowledge that this isn't the minister's area of ministerial responsibility, and I certainly wouldn't like to lay at his feet the issues which are arising at the ART under the reforms that were driven by the Attorney. However, the fact remains that you've spoken about the student visa issue, and I appreciate the issues arising there—again, because a Labor government policy is increasing the case load. But the difference in cases we're looking at is between 93,756 as at 31 December 2024 and 67,720 as at the time when the coalition left office. We're looking at 26,000 additional cases. The case load is quite extraordinary.

You mentioned that one of the aims of introducing the Administrative Review Tribunal was to deal with matters as quickly, efficiently and fairly as possible. In terms of efficiency, when the coalition left office, the median time to finalise a case was 30 weeks. Now the median time to finalise a case is 48 weeks. Again, I ask you: what has gone wrong?