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Post by bear on Apr 4, 2022 16:18:10 GMT 7
/ Clicking the page will access comments!!
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Post by bear on Apr 6, 2022 7:05:36 GMT 7
Pru Goward among six Liberal-linked appointments by Coalition to Administrative Appeals Tribunal Concerns sparked of repeat of 2019 when one in five named for government bodies before election called had Liberal or National ties
Former New South Wales minister Pru Goward and a former chief of staff to Scott Morrison are among six people with Liberal links appointed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal among 19 appointments.
On Monday the attorney general, Michaelia Cash, announced that Goward and Ann Duffield had been appointed senior members, jobs that receive pay of at least $330,000 a year, if employed on a full time basis, for up to seven years.
The AAT appointments and separate jobs for former federal minister John McVeigh and NSW minister, Don Harwin, have sparked concerns of a repeat of 2019, when a Guardian Australia analysis found that one in five of those appointed to government bodies in the fortnight before the election was called had Liberal or National party links.
Duffield is a lobbyist for DPG Advisory Solutions and a former chief of staff to then-attorney general Phillip Ruddock, and Morrison while he was immigration minister before she left that role in February 2015.
Goward is a biographer of former Liberal prime minister John Howard, and represented Goulburn for 12 years in the NSW parliament, including a stint as family and community services minister.
Labor has repeatedly criticised the Coalition for the number of appointments to the AAT from the conservative side of politics, claiming that 85 members appointed since the 2013 election have Liberal or National links.
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Post by bear on Apr 13, 2022 10:18:35 GMT 7
AAT member resigns amid Coalition’s attacks on the tribunal’s independence It looks like Liberals stacking the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with their mates has triggered the resignation of a long-serving member.
A long-serving member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has resigned, apparently in reaction to the government’s extreme politicisation of the tribunal which has seen dozens of Liberal politicians and staffers parachuted into highly paid jobs over the years the Coalition has been in office.Crikey understands that on Friday last week Adelaide-based AAT member Jennifer Strathearn circulated an email to all AAT staff informing them that she had sent her resignation to the governor-general that day. Strathearn has been with the AAT since 2015, when the government amalgamated it with two other tribunals, and worked in the social services division which reviews decisions made by agencies such as Centrelink. Before that she had been a member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal. Strathearn “noted” the Senate committee’s recommendations and having “observed events since then” had decided to resign. Her appointment was due to expire in 2024. Strathearn sent her email after lunch on Friday. It said that she had read the report of the Senate committee which had reviewed the operations of the AAT. (The report of the committee, which was chaired by Labor Senator Kim Carr, was published a week beforehand and detailed how deeply corrupted the appointments process had become.) As Crikey reported last week a key recommendation of the Senate committee was that the AAT be “disassembled” and rebuilt from the ground up, such was the reputational damage after years of the government ransacking it to look after its political friends using taxpayers’ money. Strathearn’s stand came at the end of a week in which Attorney-General Michaelia Cash announced that a new batch of former Liberal MPs and staffers would be appointed to the tribunal and that a number of existing members — including many Liberal friends — would be promoted or have their terms extended. The announcement came a week before Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election. Among those to have their terms extended is Karen Synon, a former Liberal senator who was made a deputy president of the AAT on an annual salary of $500,000 by then attorney-general Christian Porter at the end of 2020. Synon is responsible for the social services division. As Crikey reported, Synon had publicly supported Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s election campaign for the Liberal seat of Kooyong in 2019, apparently in breach of the AAT’s code of conduct on displays of political partiality. At the beginning of the month Cash also announced the appointment of a new AAT president after Justice David Thomas departed. That person is Brisbane-based Fiona Meagher, who has the job of implementing changes to the AAT which were recommended by former High Court justice Ian Callinan QC more than three years ago. Given that Meagher is Callinan’s daughter, that promises to be a delicate operation. The AAT confirmed Strathearn’s resignation as a part-time member of the tribunal, effective at the end of April. www.crikey.com.au/2022/04/12/aat-member-resigns-coalitions-attacks-on-its-independence/Note:- Clicking the link may take you to a paywall. This is the complete article; sourced through a limited time subscription. Cheers bear
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Post by nomadic on Apr 13, 2022 21:11:45 GMT 7
They did it before the last election and history repeats. More crimes should mean more cage time for them.
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