Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

While we appreciate the arguments that you quite often make about reviews of certain legislation, the government will be opposing this amendment.

With respect to these reforms, it may give you comfort to hear that the ART regularly publish data on case loads and are accountable to the parliament through Senate estimates—they will appear next week. These processes provide clear insight into the effectiveness of these measures, both on managing the tribunal's case load and supporting access to merits review that is quick, informal and effective. The government also notes that the Administrative Review Tribunal Act already contains an independent statutory review at section 294A, which states:

The review must start within the 3 months before the fifth anniversary of the commencement of this Act.

Finally, the Administrative Review Council, which was re-established by this government, serves to provide continued scrutiny of our system of administrative law. The ARC is already reviewing migration related provisions of the ART Act. On this basis, there is clear scrutiny of the tribunal, and it's enabling our legislation. The government considers it is unnecessary for there to be a further statutory review on top of this scrutiny.