Worse Decisions?

Second Reading Speech, Commonwealth House of Representatives, 28 June 2000.

Administrative Review Council, ‘Better Decisions: Review of Commonwealth Merits Review Tribunals’, Report No. 39, AGPS, 1995, Recommendation 87.

Commonwealth Administrative Review Committee Report, Parliamentary Paper No 144 of 1971, CGPS Canberra 1971, paragraph 280.

Second reading speech, House of Representatives, 28 June 2000.

For example, Social Security Act 1991 (Cth) s. 1253, Veterans Entitlements Act 1986 (Cth) s. 139.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal 1998–99 Annual Report, AGPS, 1999, p. 107.

See ref 5 above.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975–1977(Cth)s.33(l)(b) and(c).

See for example Australian Law Reform Commission, Review of the Adversarial System of Litigation: Federal Tribunal Proceedings, Issues Paper 24, April 1998, p.20.

All such examples are drawn from the Social Security Act which requires such qualitative assessments to be made in determining income support entitlements.

Legal representation is the norm rather than the exception in areas such as workers compensation, tax, and other specialised jurisdictions involving monetary claims.

Australian Law Reform Commission, Discussion Paper 62, Review of the Federal Civil Justice System, AGPS, August 1999, pp.441–2.

Australian Law Reform Commission, Empirical Information about the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Consultants Report No 1 with Discussion Paper 62, June 1999, pp.37–9 available on ALRC website <www.alrc.gov.au>.

The writer's experience is that these statements are uniformly provided by legal represented parties, and by informed departmental representatives. In the case of unrepresented applicants, they are usually not required, and when they are, are of little real value in narrowing the issues.

Bayne P. , ‘The Proposed Administrative Review Tribunal — Is There a Silver Lining in the Dark Cloud?’, 7 Australian Journal of Administrative Law 86.