Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1)

“I table revised explanatory memoranda relating to Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2024 and the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023. I move:”

Australian Labor Party • Senator • 25 Mar 2024

“The supporting consequential and transition bill will amend 138 Commonwealth acts to ensure that existing legislation supports the intentions of the new tribunal. It will also streamline reviews of migration and refugee decisions by removing the Immigration Assessment Authority so that these processes are more efficient. The bill continues to recognise the unique features of veterans' entitlement law, with maintenance of the merits review in both ART and Veterans' Review Board. To minimise disruption and delay from the changeover from the AAT, active, pending and potential cases and those currently before the courts will be transitioned to the Administrative Review Tribunal.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“We're picking up recommendations from the royal commission here, and it's important that we do. That's why I'm so supportive of this legislation. Those opposite are a disgrace. They're disingenuous about this legislation. They know the system's not working. They knew it in government, they know it in opposition and they should be supporting the bill.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 19 Mar 2024

“To conclude, in this House, we are elected to serve and support our constituents, and that means where there is something that is not working or not serving its purpose we should make changes. That's what we're doing with these amendments to the Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023 and Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023. All of our constituents deserve a fair review system. Whether it's a Centrelink matter, a NDIS matter, a visa matter or a veteran's matter, constituents must have access to a fair and transparent review process. I commend these bills to the house.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“When we came to government, the AAT was in disarray. This bill is an important reform and a really important step towards restoring trust in our institutions.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“The bill will also re-create the Administrative Review Council, which Tony Abbott shamefully abolished. All matters before the AAT when the new tribunal is in place will automatically be transferred across. There will be no break in continuity; Australians won't need to relodge their appeals.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“This legislation is another part of doing just that, and I will expand on this shortly.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“This bill creates the environment within which these ideals will be preserved. It is aimed at fixing a number of ills by ensuring a merit based selection, by putting the ART on a sustainable financial basis, by dealing with backlog and avoiding unconscionable delays—delays, too, are injustice—and by improving the case management systems.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“The bill before us today implements this commitment to establish a new federal administrative review body, the Administrative Review Tribunal, which will replace the AAT. So the AAT will be replaced by the ART. The establishment of this new administrative review body—which is user focused, efficient, accessible, independent and fair—is a key part of the government's commitment to restoring trust and confidence in Australia's system of administrative review.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“This bill is about ensuring that the AAT is replaced by a body that ensures integrity, independence, experience and accountability and builds public trust.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“We are not going to allow that to continue to be the case. In barely two years of government we've taken on the clean-up task in a whole range of areas. This is one of them. Australians deserve, and must have, a high-integrity, high-quality, transparent, fair and timely review process that they can have access to when they receive a very impactful decision from a government agency in some of the areas I've mentioned. That is what we are going to ensure is the case by providing the resources for the new Administrative Review Tribunal and, crucially, changing some of the settings around the way in which people are appointed, to make that absolutely a transparent and merit based process to make sure that where possible reviews are reported—I said before that justice delayed is justice denied.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“I'm pleased today to rise to speak in favour of the Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023, the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023 and the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 2) Bill 2024. These are very important bills that will replace the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with a new and improved Administrative Review Tribunal. This is a very important reform in strengthening and improving the federal system of administrative review and is arguably the most important review of this system in some decades.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“This bill implements the Labor government's commitment to establish this new federal administrative review body. The new body will be called the Administrative Review Tribunal and will replace the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which, as we all know, under the former government significantly failed Australians, particularly on the New South Wales Central Coast. The ART Bill builds on 50 years of experience, learning and broad consultation to establish a tribunal that is user focused, efficient, accessible, independent and fair. The ART 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's response to two recommendations from the Rapid review into the exploitation of Australia's visa system.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“Unlike those opposite, the Albanese government is taking decisive action to address these longstanding challenges. We're not leaving this in the too-hard basket. By introducing this bill, we are laying the groundwork for a system that will seek to serve the Australian people. Through these reforms, we are not just changing how the tribunal will operate; we are affirming our commitment to justice, transparency and democracy. I commend them to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“The consequential and transitional bill repeals the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975, to be replaced by the tribunal established by the ART Bill. It amends 138 Commonwealth acts to ensure that existing legislation operates as intended for the new tribunal, updates hundreds of references across the Commonwealth statute book, and streamlines the various regimes that currently apply to review of matters in the tribunal. In particular, the bill retains essential modifications to the operation of the merits review framework for tax and charity matters which ensures the workability of these frameworks and protection of tax revenue collection or otherwise upholds longstanding core tax principles and practices.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“This bill, for me, is about restoring integrity in the system. My community expects that. The AAT is one of the bodies that they had no faith in. They had no faith that, if they were a child-support payer or recipient and they took an issue through the processes of the child-support agency and then were dissatisfied with how it was handled and therefore went to the AAT for an independent expert review, what would come out the other end would be fair and just. That was the same for all the different areas that the AAT covers—everything from family assistance, paid parental leave, social security and student assistance to taxation matters, migration and refugee visa issues and visa related decisions, Australian citizenship decisions, bankruptcy decisions, civil aviation matters, freedom-of-information matters and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which would be the one where we, from my office, have seen the greatest flow-through of matters to the AAT. So I think it's vital that this institution is given some credibility again, and I'm very pleased that the legislation and the circulated amendments that are before us are going to provide something that Australians can have faith in and have confidence in.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“I'm very proud to speak in support of this today.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“I encourage those opposite today to support this bill in the House so that good governance can be trusted by the Australian public and so that people in my electorate and electorates around the country will believe, if there is a decision made, that they have a right of appeal to a trusted source where they will get a fair go. It's pretty simple. For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone in this House would oppose this legislation.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“That's why it's important that we can all contribute to this important debate. It reaffirms our commitment to providing a simple, affordable and accessible system for the review of government decisions. It's a testament to our dedication to upholding democratic principles. It's a testament to ensuring our accountability in decision-making. It's a testament to Labor's principles to make systems accessible to all: impartiality, fairness and equity. These are all principles that I stand by. These are principles that the Labor Party stands by. In conclusion, I urge all members of the parliament to support these bills. I commend the bills to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“This bill does the hard work of rebuilding public trust in our key institutions—the very foundation of our democracy depends on it. Surely that is something that everyone in this place can get behind. For the sake of all Australians, it's time to recognise and reward merit, not mateship.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“Under this government's legislation, the tribunal will finally have transparent, merit based appointment processes for the appointment of members. It will be informed by the operational needs of the tribunal to ensure that only the highest-quality members are appointed to these very important roles. This is in stark contrast to the former government, which, as it became evident, believed in jobs for Liberal mates, at the expense of our constituents, fairness and a merit based selection process. This is a welcome contrast—an effective, clear and just difference through the provision of an independent mechanism of a review which is fair and just. It resolves applications in a timely manner and with as little formality and expense as is consistent with reaching the correct or preferrable decision. It is accessible and responsive to the diverse needs of parties. It improves the transparency and quality of decision-making and promotes public trust and confidence in the tribunal. On those grounds, I commend the bills to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“The bill before us today is a crucial component of this broader reform agenda as it seeks to provide the necessary transitional and consequential provisions to facilitate the smooth transition from the old AAT to the new ART.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“It's with great pleasure that I rise to speak in support of the Albanese Labor government's Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023. This bill is being debated with two consequential bills in a cognate debate: the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023 and the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 2) Bill 2024. Collectively, these three bills will abolish the, sadly, now much discredited Administrative Appeals Tribunal and replace it with a new and much improved Administrative Review Tribunal.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“It is entirely appropriate that the Attorney-General has consulted widely and that the Attorney-General has taken action to put together what will be a new reformed body. In passing this legislation through this House, we, as a parliament, are saying that Australians should expect better, that Australians should be confident that this type of institution is free from political interference and is set up to serve the interests of people who most need it, and that is what people will get through this bill and through this work that the government is doing.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“It's not perfect. The process is inadequate, but we've got to a point where it's supportable.”

Australian Greens • Senator • 15 May 2024

“As noted above, this is a generational reform and we need to take the time to ensure it is right. While supporting the bill and not opposing the amendments in this House, the Greens reserve their position in the Senate. To that end we will continue to be guided by the valuable input of stakeholders and two core principles—that this reform must leave no-one behind and must leave no door open for a future government to undermine its integrity.”

Australian Greens • MP • 20 Mar 2024

“As noted above, this is a generational reform and we need to take the time to get this right. While we will be supporting the bill and not opposing any government amendments in this House, we reserve our position in the Senate. To that end, we will continue to be guided by the valuable input of stakeholders and by two core principles— that this reform must leave no-one behind and must leave no door open for future governments to undermine its integrity.”

Australian Greens • MP • 21 Mar 2024

“So the process of coming to where we are with the Administrative Review Tribunal was flawed. Senators Scarr and Shoebridge echoed that. But the changes are needed. As servants to the people of Queensland and Australia, my team and I have weighed the pros and cons. Based on all of this, I somewhat reluctantly decided to support the bill. Having listened, though, to Senators Scarr and Shoebridge, who are lawyers and whom I respect, I will be reflecting and may change my mind. But, at the moment, we are highly critical of the government's process in developing this bill and putting it through what amounts to less-than-perfect, inadequate scrutiny. I do say the changes are needed at the moment. I reluctantly support the bill.”

Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party • Senator • 15 May 2024