Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry Administrative Review Tribunal Bill 2023 & related bills Introduction

4 Recommendation 25: Amend subsection 79(2)(k) of the ART Bill to remove the ART’s power to limit the ability of a party to give information to the ART within a period before the start of a hearing. [...] The ART may give different weight or importance to the information in a Departmental decision, and denying an applicant from addressing these concerns is inconsistent with the objective of the ART to provide fair and just decision-making and is an inadequate procedural safeguard for a de novo merits review process.3 The ASRC echoes the concerns raised by the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrut. [...] Access to documents The amendments to section 362A of the Migration Act displaces an applicant’s ability to seek materials provided to the Tribunal for the purpose of the review, and instead merely permits applicants to request written materials from the Department which it has provided to the ART. [...] As noted by the Law Council of Australia, it is unclear how this amended provision will work practically because if the Department fails to provide the information sought, it is uncertain how the Tribunal can provide a fair hearing, as it is required to do.30 Instead, the ASRC echoes the call of the Law Council of Australia and UNHCR that section 27 of the ART Act should apply to protection and mi. [...] Recommendation 25: Amend subsection 79(2)(k) of the ART Bill to remove the ART’s power to limit the ability of a party to give information to the ART within a period before the start of a hearing.