AustLII Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback

Administrative Review Council - Admin Review

You are here:  AustLII >> Databases >> Administrative Review Council - Admin Review >> 2006 >> [2006] AdminRw 17

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Articles | Noteup | LawCite | Author Info | Download | Help

Editors --- "Tasmanian and ACT Tribunal Developments" [2006] AdminRw 17; (2006) 57 Admin Review 91


Tasmanian and ACT tribunal developments

The Tasmanian Administrative Review Advisory Council was established in August 2004 following a recommendation resulting from the Review of Administrative Appeals Processes carried out in 2003 by Greg Vines, the Tasmanian State Service Commissioner. The Council’s role is to provide to the Tasmanian Attorney–General advice on the development of administrative law in the state.

Members of the Council are appointed by the Attorney–General for three-year terms and are drawn from four categories. The inaugural chairperson is Stephen Carey, Chief Commissioner of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal. The other members are Rick Snell, Lecturer in Law at the University of Tasmania; Judith Paxton, Tasmanian Legal Ombudsman; Michael Lynch, Director of the Tasmanian Conservation Trust; and Lisa Hutton, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Justice.

The Council’s formal terms of reference require it, among other things, to review administrative law developments and recommend improvements, to review the classes of administrative decisions not currently subject to review and recommend any necessary changes, to facilitate the training of Tasmanian authorities in making administrative decisions, and to promote knowledge about Tasmania’s administrative law system.

The Council received its first reference in August 2004—to ‘verify if there is a need for a combined Tribunals model in Tasmania, including advising as to the advantages and disadvantages of a combined Tribunal model’.

More information about the Tasmanian Administrative Review Advisory Council and its first reference is available on the Council’s website <http://www.tarac.tas.gov.au/>.

In July 2004 ACT Chief Minister and Attorney–General John Stanhope noted the possibility of making a number of reforms to the ACT tribunals system. Mr Stanhope’s primary concern was the duplication and inefficiency in the current system as a result of many tribunals operating in isolation from each other. He said this problem could be remedied in one of several ways—consolidating tribunals, rationalising jurisdictions, or rationalising tribunal registries. The most significant reform option, he suggested, would be to create a single ACT tribunal with a number of divisions, similar to the amalgamation that has occurred in Victoria and Western Australia. The ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety is to develop a discussion paper outlining the various options for reform.


AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AdminRw/2006/17.html