Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition leader and his colleagues are now openly admitting what many of us have been saying for years. The modern Liberal Party care so little for vulnerable people who rely on the AAT that they are happy to stack it with Liberal cronies—almost 90 Liberal Party cronies—at taxpayers' expense, many of whom they knew were not up to the job.

Each year, tens of thousands of Australians rely on the AAT to independently review decisions made by Commonwealth departments and ministers that have major and sometimes life-altering impacts on their lives. Those opposite do not care about those Australians. Those opposite have never cared about those Australians and they never will. Just yesterday we heard some more troubling revelations about the internal culture of the AAT, after almost 10 years of Liberal Party stacking. Seventeen current members of the tribunal have faced bullying, discrimination or harassment complaints since 1 July 2016, and one of those members has had at least five such complaints made against them. That is completely unacceptable and is yet another problem our government will have to address. The Liberal Party of Australia deserves to be tarnished forever for the legacy of this uniquely disgraceful exhibition of political cronyism, which has come at enormous cost to taxpayers, to the AAT and to Australia's system of administrative law more generally.

Hono urable members interjecting—

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