ABC
News,
16 December 2022:
One
of the most notoriously politicised bodies, the Administrative
Appeals Tribunal, will be abolished after the attorney-general
declared its reputation had been irreversibly damaged.
Attorney-General
Mark Dreyfus said the former government made dozens of politicised
appointments to the AAT in its time in office, and that he would end
the "cronyism".
"By
appointing 85 former Liberal MPs, failed Liberal candidates, former
Liberal staffers and other close Liberal associates, without any
merit-based selection process … the former government fatally
compromised the AAT," Mr Dreyfus said.
"Australians
rightly expect honesty, integrity and accountability in government."
A
new review body will be established in the new year, and
already-appointed tribunal members will be invited to continue with
it.
For
almost 50 years the AAT was tasked with reviewing the decisions of
government, including on matters of taxation, immigration and social
security.
Appointments
to the AAT were made by the government of the day for terms of up to
seven years, though members could be re-appointed.
Mr
Dreyfus said the new body would have a merit-based process for
appointing tribunal members, after he accused the former government
of sometimes appointing members to review issues such as taxation
despite having no expertise in the area.
"The
AAT's dysfunction has had a 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-changing
impacts on their lives," Mr Dreyfus said.
"Decisions
such as whether an older Australian receives an age pension, whether
a veteran is compensated for a service injury or whether a
participant in the NDIS receives funding for an essential report."….
Accusations
of politicised appointments have been levelled at former governments
of all stripes, though progressive think tank The Australia Institute
found a significant rise in what it deemed political appointments
after the Coalition won office in 2013.
The
think tank found around 5 per cent of AAT appointments under the
Howard, Rudd and Gillard governments had been made to people with
political connections, but that jumped to more than one-third of
appointments under the Morrison government.
It
also found a quarter of senior AAT members who were political
appointments had no legal qualifications.
Plum
jobs that paid as much as $500,000 were sometimes offered to people
in the dying days of government before a federal election.
Former
NSW state Liberal minister Pru Goward, former WA Liberal minister
Michael Mischin, and Mr Morrison's former chief of staff Anne
Duffield were among those appointed to the AAT in the final days of
the Morrison government.
The
AAT had also faced several accusations of bullying by its members
since 2016.
Bill
Browne, The Australia Institute's democracy and accountability
director, said reform was urgently needed.
"Whatever
body replaces the AAT must be robust and independent, and that means
the AAT’s replacement must be carefully designed with an open and
transparent appointment process that ensures only qualified,
independent members are appointed," Mr Browne said.
Australian
Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns SC welcomed the AAT's
abolition.
"Mr
Dreyfus has the chance to create a new, impartial and fully
independent tribunal that deals with thousands of cases each year
involving Centrelink issues, tax issues and military compensation, to
name some of the areas," he said.
"Today
is a win for the rule of law."
Justice
Susan Kenney has been appointed as the acting president of the AAT to
guide its transition to the new system.
Mr
Dreyfus said the new review body would be given 75 additional staff
to help clear backlogs, at a cost of $63.4 million.
He
said legislation to establish the body would be introduced next year,
though likely not until the second half of the year.
BACKGROUND
ABC
News,
7 November 2022:
Administrative
Appeals Tribunal reveals 17 members have faced bullying or harassment
complaints since 2016
Seventeen
current members of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) have had
more than one bullying, harassment or discrimination complaint made
against them since 2016.
Allegations
have been made against 19 members in total, with two members no
longer working with the AAT.
They
include senior officials and a deputy president, with the head of the
tribunal unaware until Monday that they were still serving despite
the multiple complaints.
The
Klaxon,
3 September 2022:
AAT
member paid for two gov’t jobs – for over five years
The
top public official responsible for penalising medical practitioners
who rip-off Medicare was paid for two Federal Government jobs for her
entire five-and-a-half-year tenure.
The
Klaxon can exclusively reveal Professor Julie Quinlivan, the
long-time head of the Federal Government’s Professional Services
Review agency, was also paid as a member of the Administrative
Appeals Tribunal.
Quinlivan
has been employed as a “part-time member” of the Federal
Government’s Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) – in a
position paying tens of thousands of dollars a year – since July
2015.
She
was also employed as the full-time “director” of the Professional
Services Review (PSR) agency from February 2017 until six weeks ago,
when she quietly departed, seven months before her contract was due
to expire.
The
director of the PSR is responsible for reviewing allegations of
“inappropriate practice” against Medicare by medical
practitioners – including double-billing – and is paid almost
$400,000 a year.
The
payments to Quinlivan while she held both the AAT and PSR positions
totalled over $2 million.
ABC NEWS, 14 April 2022;
Government unnecessarily extends jobs ahead of election
Plum jobs worth up to $500,000 a year were extended to Liberal Party-linked individuals by the Morrison government in the lead-up to the election, and many were not due to end for another two years. Some had their tenure extended by Morrison & Co to 2027.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
1 February 2019:
Morrison
government moves to re-appoint Abbott-era AAT members
The
Morrison government is moving to re-appoint dozens of Abbott-era
Administrative Appeals Tribunal members despite their terms coming to
an end six weeks after a May federal election.
Crikey,
27 November 2019:
AAT accused of ‘intimidating’ robo-debt victims out of appealing
In
the last financial year, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
contacted almost 800 people who wanted to appeal their Centrelink
debt. Around half of those contacted withdrew their appeal, a figure
that has alarmed experts.
Crikey,
25 September 2019:
Members
of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal are steadily losing their jobs
and being replaced with people less qualified.
Terry
Carney lost his job as a member of the Administrative Appeals
Tribunal (AAT) via a short, blunt email. It arrived five months after
he delivered a tribunal decision which declared Centrelink’s
robo-debt scheme to be illegal — a finding that angered the federal
government.
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