Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The amendment refines the original bill by replacing references to student visas with temporary visas for decisions to be reviewed on the papers. In doing so, it broadens the scope to include temporary visa refusals rather than restricting it to student visas only. It also allows for prescribing of additional types of decisions eligible for on-the-papers review. The amendments also introduce provisions to assist the president in their functions, including rules for acting appointments and delegation of powers to non-judicial deputy presidents. The opposition supports measures that make the review system faster, fairer and more efficient.

By embracing on-the-papers review, the ART can direct its limited resources to matters that genuinely need oral examination while resolving simpler disputes promptly. However, as noted in the Senate inquiry report, there are concerns about delegating power to expand on-the-paper reviews via regulation rather than by legislation. Any future extension beyond student and temporary visas should be subject to clear consultation, transparency and disallowance. Parliament, not the executive, should determine when the right to an oral hearing is limited.

This bill serves as an admission that the opposition has been right all along on the ART. It acknowledges Labor's failure in replacing the AAT with the ART, which was promised to be faster and more efficient. Instead, under Labor, the ART has become slower, more expensive and overwhelmed by a record backlog, with case times ballooning and the case load growing significantly. The bill acknowledges that Labor's changes have not delivered the promised reforms, and the system is now struggling.