What is the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and how does it work

THOSE appealing a visa change or child support decision are likely to face the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. So what is the AAT and how does it work?

Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

THE Administrative Appeals Tribunal now has 304 members and is budgeted to get $156 million in Federal Government funding in 2017-18.

It is made up of 35 judges and deputy presidents, 28 full-time senior members, 22 part-time senior members, 69 full-time members and 150 part-time members — plus 630 support staff.

AAT president Justice David Thomas earns a base salary of $449,840 a year — as do his 18 fellow judges who are deputy presidents — while the 10 full time non-judicial deputy presidents are on a total annual package of $477,270.

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AAT president Justice David Thomas.

The 28 full-time senior members earn between $317,110 and $376,710 a year while the 69 full-time members get between $186,450 and $239,720 a year.

AAT registrar Ms Sian Leathem has an annual package of $399,520.

On July 1, 2015, the former Migration Review Tribunal, the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Social Security Appeals Tribunal were merged with the AAT.

The AAT conducts independent merits reviews of administrative decisions made under more than 400 Commonwealth laws by Australian Government ministers, departments and agencies.

People affected by those decisions can appeal to the AAT.

Most commonly it reviews decisions relating to migration and refugee visas, child support, workers’ compensation, taxation, social security, veterans’ entitlements and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The president of the AAT must be a Federal Court judge.

Other AAT members must be Federal or Family Court judges, lawyers of at least five years’ standing or persons with relevant knowledge or skills.

The many non-judicial members include people with expertise in areas such as accountancy, aviation, disability law, medicine, migration, military affairs, public administration, science, social welfare and taxation.

All appointments to the AAT are made by the Governor-General on government advice. They are appointed for a term of up to seven years. Members can be reappointed when their term expires.

The AAT has the power to affirm a decision, vary a decision, set aside a decision and substitute a new decision or remit a decision to the decision-maker for reconsideration.

In the 2016-17 financial year, AAT members in the migration division reviewed 13,755 visa decisions made by delegates for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and overturned 5276 of them while only affirming 5110.

The rest were either withdrawn by the applicant, dismissed by the AAT or the AAT had no jurisdiction to hear the cases.

AAT members reviewed 13,755 visa decisions made by delegates for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and overturned 5276 of them. Picture: Gary Ramage

A visa may be refused or cancelled under section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 on the basis that a person does not pass the character test.

Since a toughening of the legislation in December 2014, a visa must be cancelled under certain circumstances — including that a person does not pass the character test if that person has been sentenced to 12 months or more in jail.

If a person is subjected to this mandatory visa cancelling they can apply to a delegate for the immigration minister to have this decision revoked.

A decision of a delegate for the immigration minister either to refuse or cancel a visa, or not to revoke a mandatory visa cancellation, can be reviewed by the AAT.

Almost all visa decisions are made by officers of the Immigration Department delegated to exercise that responsibility by the minister, rather than the minister himself.

AAT members can’t review a decision to cancel a visa made on character grounds that is made by the immigration minister personally.

The Herald Sun has identified 164 cases in the past eight years where the AAT has overturned visa decisions made on character grounds by ministerial delegates.

Criminals saved from deportation by the AAT since 2010 include eight killers, 66 other brutal thugs with shocking convictions for violence, 17 rapists, paedophiles and other sex offenders, 33 drug dealers and 23 armed robbers.

If an applicant or a decision-maker thinks a decision made by the AAT is incorrect in law then a judicial review application, or an appeal on a question of law, can be lodged with the Federal Circuit Court or Federal Court.

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