Mechanisms in the ART Bill to thwart Robodebt-type maladministration

On 7 December 2023, the Commonwealth Attorney-General introduced into the Federal Parliament the Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023 and the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023. When enacted, the Bills will abolish the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and replace it with the Administrative Review Tribunal. Among other things, the ART Act will provide mechanisms to enable the ART to identify, escalate and report upon systemic issues in administrative decision making, including referring them to a new Guidance and Appeals Panel or to the re-established Administrative Review Council. A key rationale for these mechanisms is to thwart Robodebt-type maladministration.

About this Event

On 7 December 2023, the Commonwealth Attorney-General introduced into the Federal Parliament the Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023 and the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Bill 2023. When enacted, the Bills will abolish the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and replace it with the Administrative Review Tribunal. The ART Act will:

• Empower the President to manage the caseloads of the ART in jurisdictional lists and to assign members to jurisdictional areas in accordance with the demands of those caseloads from time to time.
• Provide for a code of conduct and a professional standard for members and facilitate the professional development of members.
• Empower the President to delegate ADR and case management functions to registrars to free members to focus on hearing and determining cases that are not resolved by agreement.
• Provide mechanisms to enable the ART to identify, escalate and report upon systemic issues in administrative decision making, including referring them to a new Guidance and Appeals Panel or to the re-established Administrative Review Council. A key rationale for these mechanisms is to thwart Robodebt-type maladministration.

In a panel chaired by the Hon. Pamela Tate AM KC, the Hon Justice Emilios Kyrou AO and Albert M Dinelli KC will discuss these mechanisms.

The Hon Justice Emilios Kyrou AO. Justice Kyrou is a judge of the Federal Court of Australia who is to be the inaugural President of the ART. Justice Kyrou was a Judge of the Victorian Court of Appeal  from July 2014 until he was appointed to the Federal Court. Between May 2008 and July 2014 he was a Trial Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, where he was one of the judges in charge of the Supreme Court's Judicial Review and Appeals List.  From July 1990 until May 2008, he was a senior litigation partner at the international legal firm that is now known as King & Wood Mallesons, where he specialised in administrative law and insurance law.  Justice Kyrou was born in Greece and is the Victorian patron of the Hellenic Australian Lawyers Association.

Albert Dinelli KC. Albert has a public law and broad commercial law practice at the Victorian Bar.  He has appeared in the High Court, and in intermediate appellate courts, in a number of constitutional, administrative, commercial and criminal law matters.  Before coming to the Bar, Albert was Associate to the Honourable Murray Gleeson AC, the then Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.  He holds a D.Phil in Law from the University of Oxford.

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