Will Labor Fix the AAT?

[Banjo]

AAT member says he was benched after too many decisions against government

Michael Manetta says move undermines impartiality and independence of administrative appeals tribunal

A member of the administrative appeals tribunal has said he was benched from hearing social security cases because he decided too many against the government.

Michael Manetta says the AAT deputy president, Karen Synon, a former Liberal senator, expressed concern in June 2021 about the number of appeals against his decisions by the Department of Social Services before he was benched in September in a bid to increase “consistency” between tribunal members’ decisions.

After months of internal complaints Manetta has blown the whistle on a move he called “completely incompatible with the rule of law” that “undermines the impartiality and independence of the tribunal”.

Synon told Guardian Australia she categorically denies “any implication or inference that I have acted in any manner that is not fair, impartial and just in the exercise of my statutory duties at the AAT”.

The AAT is an independent tribunal that conducts merit reviews of government decisions, such as DSS decisions to refuse welfare payments or to recoup jobseeker and jobkeeper overpayments.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/16/aat-member-says-he-was-benched-after-too-many-decisions-against-government?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[bear]

Let's hope so......

dspoverseas.proboards.com/thread/7418/barrister-claims-demotion-government-decisions

[bear]

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[bear]

Kill off the AAT: it’s stacked with Morrison’s Liberal mates and is no longer credible. by Greg Barns SC

Just before ousted Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election, his Attorney-General Michaelia Cash stacked the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with a host of Liberal Party mates. Political appointments are out of control and the AAT needs to be killed off.

The office of Attorney-General is one that has been tarnished by the Morrison government. Both Christian Porter and Michaela Cash used it to destroy the independence of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) by turning the AAT into a branch of the Liberal Party.

They also approved the disgraceful prosecution of Bernard Collaery, the man who blew the whistle on the Howard government’s espionage against East Timor in the early 2000s. And, as has been the case since 9/11, both were in the thrall of the authoritarian security state bosses in ASIO, ASIS and the like and passed into law whatever odious attack on liberty was served up to them by those agencies.

What the current (and likely temporary) Attorney-General, Katy Gallagher could do immediately, and should, is ensure that the Attorney-General is no longer used to undermine the rule of law by ending the prosecution of Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery. She, and Mark Dreyfus (the likely permanent AG) should also promise to abolish the AAT.

Kill off the AAT

The AAT has become so stacked with Liberal Party members, former MPs and staffers that it must be killed off. This mechanism was established in 1977 by the Fraser government to ensure ordinary citizens could challenge decisions about tax, pensions, migration visas and the like, cheaply and quickly.

For many years, the AAT performed this role admirably. While there have always been a handful of appointments to it which could be said to be political, from the time Tony Abbott became prime minister the number of people appointed who could be labelled political is obscene.

Just before the election was called, the then A-G Michaelia Cash shamelessly appointed a number of Liberal and government members and staffers to the AAT where they will earn between around $190,000 to $380,000 a year.

Just how rotten this practice of stacking has become is starkly illustrated by a recent Australia Institute report. It has calculated that while in “the Howard and Rudd/Gillard/Rudd administrations, political appointees accounted for 6 and 5 per cent of all appointees respectively,” “during the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison administration, political appointees accounted for 32 per cent of all new appointments.” In the case of the Morrison regime, four in every 10 appointments has been a government supporter or sympathiser.

Dreyfus should pass urgent legislation abolishing the AAT and creating a new body where all appointments are freshly made. The appointments process should be conducted by an independent panel which makes recommendations to the Attorney-General.

Would such a drastic step be viewed as an attack on judicial independence? No. What Dreyfus would be doing is restoring the independence of decision making where the government is always a party.

And dump the Collaery prosecution

On Collaery, if Labor is serious about protecting citizens who blow the whistle on corruption and misdeeds by security agencies such as ASIS, Dreyfus should withdraw Cash’s consent for the prosecution of the former ACT Attorney-General. The pursuit by the Commonwealth DPP of Collaery in the ACT Supreme Court has gone on for nearly five years.

It is a case where the Kafkaesque laws allowing secret evidence are being used, and where the legal bill being paid by taxpayers is into the millions of dollars. And for what? For the Commonwealth to send out a message that if you have a conscience and refuse to stay schtum about actions such as ASIS bugging the cabinet room of the poorest country in the world at the time, you will be hunted down and sent to jail.

There is no public interest in this case continuing. The offences laid against Collaery had to have the tick from the Attorney-General and Gallagher can say enough is enough. Dreyfus has also flagged he is thinking along these lines, according to The Guardian.

What else could the new AG do immediately to remove the odour which has attached to the office since the Abbott government days when the pompous George Brandis held the portfolio?

It is over 20 years since the first batch of post 9/11 war on terror laws were passed. Since then over 80 bills have become law and they have, without exception, eroded fundamental rights such as the right to silence, the right to independent legal advice, freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom of movement. What is required is a review of these laws and the drafting of a serious charter of rights which at least provides protection against an overweening executive government in this area of policy.

The Albanese government will find that the new Independent MPs and the Greens very likely will support each of these initiatives. Another reason to strike now.

www.facebook.com/100181508346876/posts/pfbid04utpu5gyxuEQJsnLfxtNPNJKaz7qD5xNNVtS1G8bhc3cxws5QqGJwWYjTN2PtGynl/

[nomadic]

They did it before the 2019 election. Jail is the only answer.

[bear]

Labor-led Senate inquiry to call for axing of Liberal-dominated AAT

Mark Dreyfus ‘cannot have confidence’ in current make-up of Administrative Appeals Tribunal, but won’t be drawn on recommendation to scrap body

A Senate inquiry chaired by outgoing Labor senator Kim Carr is expected to reiterate its call to “disassemble” the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, lobbing an explosive idea in the lap of attorney general, Mark Dreyfus.

Dreyfus has made no secret of his concern about the Coalition’s practice of appointing former staffers and politicians from its ranks to the powerful tribunal, which reviews the merits of government decisions in areas including welfare, immigration and the NDIS.

Carr’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee released an interim report in March finding the tribunal “wanting”, but Dreyfus has never endorsed its central recommendation to scrap the body and start again.

The report called on the government to “re-establish a new, federal administrative review system, by no later than 1 July 2023”. The committee is expected to hand down its final report on Thursday, Carr’s last day as a senator.

“I trust you’ll find that it is absolutely consistent with the interim report,” Carr said.

“I hope the government will act on it,” he said, stressing he would not “pre-empt” consideration by Dreyfus.

On Tuesday, Dreyfus did an extended interview with Radio National’s Law Report, referring to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) 13 times, with no mention of abolishing or replacing the body.

When asked if he intended to reverse particular appointments, Dreyfus replied he would “be fully reviewing the operations of the [AAT] to make sure that it is fit for purpose, to make sure that it is working at the optimum level”.

Dreyfus said the tribunal affects the rights of “hundreds of thousands of Australians every year”, who “deserve to know that the very best people have been selected to sit on those merit-based review processes”.

“At the moment, you cannot have that confidence in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal,” he said, citing the appointment of “90 former Liberal members, failed Liberal candidates, former Liberal staffers”.

Dreyfus said the Albanese government wants to “return to a transparent and merit-based appointment system” for courts and the AAT.

On Wednesday Dreyfus said partisan appointments had “contributed to huge backlogs as people wait months, and in some cases years, to have their cases heard”.

“I am now carefully considering how I can undo the damage of the last nine years, and ensure the AAT once again serves the interests of all Australians, not just the Liberal party and its mates.”

In 2018 a review by former high court chief justice, Ian Callinan, called for major changes to fix the tribunal’s backlog of cases, particularly in the migration division, which it partly attributed to members without legal training struggling to write decisions.

The Senate committee’s interim report said that “review after review” had found “the AAT needs to enact significant reforms to its functions and processes, and importantly to its member selection processes, to no avail”.

“Something is fundamentally broken in the way the AAT currently operates.”

In May Guardian Australia revealed allegations from a member of the AAT who said he was benched from hearing social security cases because he decided too many against the government.

Michael Manetta said he was benched in September in a bid to increase “consistency” between tribunal members’ decisions, a move he called “completely incompatible with the rule of law”. Manetta’s complaint is being independently investigated by former family court judge, Jennifer Boland.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/29/labor-led-senate-inquiry-to-call-for-axing-of-liberal-dominated-aat

[Banjo]

Replies count is live, click to view......

[nomadic]

This happened before the previous election. It is 100% corruption. Jail must happen for corrupt politicians. Otherwise, it will continue with all governments.

[bear]

Jun 30, 2022 20:19:27 GMT 7 nomadic said:

This happened before the previous election. It is 100% corruption. Jail must happen for corrupt politicians. Otherwise, it will continue with all governments.

I wish I could say my hopes are pinned on a federal ICAC before Christmas and believe it, but I can't!! 

However since it's the start of a new financial year, I'm starting a countdown, and if the aforementioned commission is not forthcoming in the next six months, if there is not a public outcry, protests and perhaps civil disobedience, Australians will deserve whatever come what may, from whatever government they have had the misfortune to have installed, forevermore..... 🐻

[boxr]

Yep, AAT is not fit for purpose anymore. Seems like anything that morroson touched turns to shit.

Back in 2019
www.crikey.com.au/2019/09/25/how-a-government-tamed-the-aat/