The Australian Administrative Law

 

Australian Administrative Law

 

  

Introduction

 

The Australian law and government structure has been marked by the existence of administrative law that has largely come into play in the last four decades. In its development through the judicial reviews, administrative tribunal forms part of its key elements. Administrative law has increasingly been influenced by the way government has made decisions on its citizens. Such decisions include taxation, pensions, social security, licenses, and permits. And of course, these government decisions had to affect the citizens’ life on an everyday basis.

 

The establishment of administrative law

 

In the mid 1970’s, Australia adopted a new system of administrative law at the government level. At this period, the Administrative Appeals Tribunals was formed which was part of a big package of other tribunals. A Federal Court of Australia was formed as well which in part had the mandate to codify common law on basis of judicial review. This was to be done through the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act of 1977.[1] A council was also formed, Administrative Review Council, to offer advice to Government concerning matters of administrative law.[2]

 

Tribunals and administrative law

 

            In this case, we are discussing the tribunals in length, their mandate and roles as well as how they have been formed to advance administrative law in Australia. The main tribunal which is recognized in the country is the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that was formed in 1975.[3]

 

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT)

 

It can be noted that tribunals had been formed to ensure administrative law came into application. The administrative Appeals Tribunal was among the tribunal created.  Generally speaking, this tribunal had its responsibility in executing power in its capacity.[4] It was a unique tribunal and remains to be so up to now. It is so powerful a tribunal in that it reviews government decisions in its jurisdiction. Such even includes checking the decisions made by cabinet ministers in Australia.[5] It has an operational policy which oversees how important operations by government are performed.

The jurisdiction of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal entails executive decision making while in some cases acting like a court. In determining the cases, however, its decision has to be substituted to be in line with the decision made by the original entities. Besides reviewing government decisions, the tribunal hears workers compensation claims.[6] In essence, all these are just a review of administrative decisions made by government directly or through government agencies in determination of compensation payments. Compensation claiming is a complex process and hence their determination through a tribunal takes much less free decision making.

Generally, as earlier stated, the tribunal has been adopted to offer jurisdiction over matter such as taxation, licenses, workers’ compensation and social security.[7] However, in addition, it determines other important issues such insurance regulations, corporate regulations, insurance, aviation, bankruptcy, fishing, and customs among other jurisdictions. While it does this, it has to solve issues that are either complex or those that are fairly easy.[8] Whatever the case, however, the main thing lies with the judgement made. There could be instances when the decisions made are constrained though.

 

Why tribunals are indispensable in Australia

 

In Australia, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has generally been accepted. The normative role of the tribunal in improving quality of the government making decisions has been given applause, one such vocal person to applaud the tribunal is the Attorney general of Australia, Hon. Phillip Ruddock. Many regard the influencing of the government decision making as very important a point. They also believe that it is equally important as it helps provide justice to individuals on various matters concerning them. The success of the tribunal is attributed to its being general (Ruddock, 1997).  For example, it comes in handy when questions arise in parliament where decisions have to be made subject to review.

This tribunal has been made important in Australia and helps tackle many issues. Therefore, due to its huge mandate, there comes a need for it to quite flexible in readiness for tasks in waiting. The tribunal has been developed accordingly in order to perform these tasks. It has four different members including the president who normally is the Federal Court of Australia Judge and other members who must be judges.[9] There are also the deputy presidents, senior members and members. These judicial members essentially exercise administrative power which in real leads to administrative law, the subject of discussion.

The diversity in membership to the tribunal makes it a flexible entity. It has members with divergent expertise which enable it to administer the law from various understandings.  At the moment, the tribunal has over 100 members who range from previous military persons, medical practitioners, accountants, scientists, businesspersons, aviators among others.[10]  This is of course an addition to the lawyers. As earlier mentioned, these varied experts enable the tribunal to make informed decisions although it is not bound by all contribution. This is because some cases need expert evidence.

 

The role of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal

 

This role also makes the tribunal very unique. This particular tribunal undertakes to mainly settle matters by parties involved. Such a high jurisdiction makes it distinct from all other tribunals in the country such as Social Security Appeals Tribunal among others (McMillan, Todd, 1996). However, with such a mandate, it has to ensure that it provides quality as well as consistency so as not to compromise its image before the public.                 

                          

Other tribunals

 

These include the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT), the Veterans Review Board, Migration Review Tribunal and the Refugee Review Tribunal. These tribunals are specialist tribunals which provide review to sensitive areas of government decision making processes. Their decisions are however reviewable by the Administrative Appeals tribunal (McMillan, Todd, 1996).

 

The tribunals merit in shaping administrative law

 

Practically, the functions of government are too many and parliament alone or the country’s electoral process cannot effectively account for the decisions made by government.[11]  Indeed, the country’s parliament acknowledged that tribunals were better placed to execute an administrative law.[12]

The Parliament Involvement

 

Parliament has been regarded as a forum of accountability in administrative law. Therefore, integration and recognition of parliament’s role in the administrative law as a system ensures that the objectives underlying become accountable. This ensures better administration and provision of justice (Creyke, McMillan, 2009).

Conclusion

 

Australia has put much of its government checks on tribunals. The Administrative Appeals tribunal sits at the apex of this. This tribunal provides the reviews for the federal decisions in all levels. It provides reviews of decisions made by specialist tribunals as well as direct reviews of decisions of Ministers (Cabinet Ministers inclusive), agencies of federal Government and departments. The tribunals, especially the AAT have a rich variety of expertise that enables it tackle or solve many issues as regards administrative law.

 

 

 

 

References

Aronson M., Dyer B. (2000) Judicial Review of Administrative Action, Sydney: Law Book Company.

Creyke, R., McMillan, J., (2009) Control of Government Action: Text, Cases and Commentary.  Sydney: LexisNexis.

Douglas, R (2009) Douglas and Jones's Administrative Law. Sydney: Federation Press

McMillan J., Todd R (1996) 'The Administrative Tribunals System: Where to from here?’ Canberra: Australian Institute of Administrative Law,

McMillan J., Williams N (1998) Human Rights in Australian Law, Sydney: Federation Press

Pearce D., Argument S (1999) Delegated Legislation in Australia, Sydney: Butterworths

Piotrowicz R., Kaye S (2000) Human Rights in International and Australian Law, Sydney: Butterworths.

Ruddock P (1997) Administrative Law under the Coalition Government. Canberra: Australian Institute of Administrative Law

Solomon D (1978) Inside the Australian Parliament. Sydney: George Allen and Unwin,

Taggart M (1997) the Province of Administrative Law, Hart: Oxford.

Terrill, G (2000) Secrecy and Openness, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press

Twomey A., (2000) 'Federal Parliament's Changing Role in Treaty Making and External Affairs', Department of the Parliamentary Library, Research Paper no. 15, 1999-2000.