‘Unprecedented surge’ in student visa appeals clogging up Administrative Review Tribunal

Figures published by the department show challenging student visa refusals made up 9.1 per cent of total lodgments before the pandemic. But by 2024-25, this had blown out to 38.6 per cent.

Student visa appeals have quadrupled in six years. Picture: University of Melbourne

The Administrative Review Tribunal is being clogged up with an “unprecedented surge” in appeals over student visa refusals, the Attorney-General’s Department says, with a quadrupling of cases since before Covid.

This massive caseload increase has been driven by an increase in student visa applications and the government’s crackdown on dodgy education providers while Labor also seeks to limit the number of international students coming into the country.

Figures published by the department show that in 2018-19 – before the pandemic – 5499 lodgments challenging student visa refusals made up 9.1 per cent of total lodgments.

But by 2024-25, this had blown out to 32,187, or 38.6 per cent of total lodgments.

The Coalition said this showed the ART – which Labor introduced, replacing the previous Administrative Appeals Tribunal – “has been an expensive failure” and that Labor’s newly introduced bill is “a concession they got it wrong”.

“Labor spent a billion dollars to rebrand the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, all while claiming it was necessary to deal with backlogs and delay,” opposition legal affairs spokesman Julian Leeser said.

“When the Coalition left office, the AAT had around 67,000 cases and dealt with them in 30 weeks.

“Under this government’s rebranded tribunal, there are now more than 111,000 cases and wait times have more than doubled.

“On almost every performance measure, this new tribunal has been an expensive failure, and the legislation we are now seeing from the government is a concession that they got it wrong.”

The Attorney-General’s Department’s figures were in the department’s submission to new legislation that would give the ART power to fast-track cases by making determinations without hearings if deemed appropriate and with notice to the parties.

This would give the ART “additional flexibility” and would allow it to resolve matters more quickly and with “as little formality as proper consideration of the matter permits”, the government said.

Specifically, it would allow cases to be determined without hearings and instead just “on the papers” for student visa decisions, the explanatory memorandum reads.

The office of Attorney-General Michelle Rowland dismissed the Coalition criticism.

“The shadow attorney-general belonged to a government that turned administrative review into a swamp of failed Liberal candidates, hacks, mates and cronies,” a spokesman said.

“We won’t be lectured by those who spent a decade turning the AAT into a Coalition consolation prize.

“The Albanese government is cleaning up the Liberals’ mess by restoring integrity to merits review and ensuring the tribunal has the flexibility it needs to efficiently manage its caseload.”