Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Labor does not support these amendments. Senator Patrick's amendments would implement measure 23 of former High Court Justice Ian Callinan's review of the AAT, which says:

Amend s 44 of the AAT Act to provide for appeals from decisions of the AAT, for error of law in lieu of a question of law.

Mr Callinan offers only a very brief explanation for this recommendation. He writes:

The identification of a discrete question of law can be problematic. Fact and law are sometimes inextricably mixed. For clarity, appeals should be for errors of law rather than on a question of law.

With all due respect to Mr Callinan, his report does not identify an actual problem with the existing language in section 44 of the AAT Act. He merely asserts that it is unclear.

While we are open to considering this amendment in the future following a proper consultation process, we do not think it has been sufficiently explained or justified by Mr Callinan. Nor was this recommendation considered by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee in relation to this bill.

Question negatived.