Segal, Jillian --- "President's Comments" [2006] AdminRw 1; (2006) 57 Admin Review 3

• President’s comments

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President’s comments

I am delighted to be involved in the production of this edition of Admin Review, the first with which I have been involved since my appointment as President of the Administrative Review Council in September 2005.

The Council has been in existence for almost 30 years and during that time has made a very significant contribution to the identification of sound administrative law principles and the education, through the development of best-practice principles, of people involved in making administrative decisions and in reviewing such decisions.

The Council will be celebrating its 30th anniversary in December 2006 and proposes to mark this milestone with an event in the second half of the year. Details are yet to be determined, but when they are they will be posted on the Council’s website. We also propose to produce a special edition of Admin Review later in the year, featuring articles by people who have had strong connections with the Council during its existence.

As reflected in the content of this latest edition of Admin Review, there is every indication that sound administrative law principles are as important this century as they were in the preceding one, when the Council was established. New community developments and business initiatives continue to demand administrative law responses that are both flexible and grounded in sound principle.

The Council’s work reflects this demand for administrative law principles to be appropriately applied to new situations. In the past year the Council tabled and launched its report on the use of expert computer systems in government decision making, Automated Assistance in Administrative Decision Making, and a working group has already been established to develop a set of best-practice guidelines for using expert systems and promoting consistency across government agencies.

Since publication of the previous edition of Admin Review, in June 2004, there have been a number of interesting developments in administrative law. Many of these developments are documented in this current edition. Among them are important amendments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth) to streamline procedures for dealing with review applications, and the establishment of a new tribunal, the Western Australian State Administrative Tribunal.

Recently there has been much focus on the question of regulatory reform. The Council considers that sound administrative decision-making and review processes can play an important role in the reform process, and I am pleased to report that it is contemplating several projects that will complement other broad reform initiatives in this area.

Jillian Segal AM