Corporate publicationsOnline Action Plan1. About the AATThe Tribunal falls within the portfolio of the Attorney-General. The responsible Minister is the Attorney-General, the Honourable Robert McClelland MP. The Tribunal was established by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (AAT Act). The AAT Act and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Regulations 1976 (AAT Regulations) set out its powers, functions and procedures. The Tribunal's membership consists of a President, Presidential Members (including Judges and Deputy Presidents), Senior Members and Members. The President is a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia. Some Presidential Members are Judges of the Federal Court or Family Court of Australia. All Deputy Presidents are lawyers. Senior Members may be lawyers or have special expertise in other areas. Members have expertise in areas such as accountancy, actuarial skills, administration, aviation, environment, insurance, law, medicine, military affairs, taxation, social welfare and valuation. Appointments to the Tribunal may be full-time or part-time. The Tribunal reviews only decisions over which it has been given specific jurisdiction, generally conferred by the legislation under which the specific decision was made. The Tribunal's jurisdiction is contained in almost 400 separate enactments, covering areas such as taxation, social security, veterans' affairs, Commonwealth employees' compensation and superannuation, criminal deportation, civil aviation, customs, freedom of information, bankruptcy, student assistance, security assessments undertaken by ASIO, corporations and export market development grants. 2. Functions and ServicesThe Tribunal is an independent body that reviews, on the merits, a broad range of administrative decisions made by Commonwealth (and, in limited circumstances, State) Government ministers and officials, authorities and other tribunals. The Tribunal also reviews administrative decisions made by some non-government bodies. Merits review of an administrative decision involves its reconsideration. The Tribunal decides whether, on the facts before it, the correct or, in a discretionary area, the preferable decision has been made in accordance with the applicable law. It will affirm, vary or set aside the original decision. The Tribunal is not always the first avenue of redress for review of an administrative decision. In some cases, it may not review decisions until after an internal review by the department or agency that made the primary decision. In other cases, review by the Tribunal is only available after intermediate review by a specialist tribunal. For example, in the area of social security, an application may be made to the Tribunal only after review by the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT). 3. Services already onlineThe AAT web site (http://www.aat.gov.au/) provides access to a range of Tribunal information and documentation on matters of interest to applicants, legal practitioners, other government agencies and the general community.
4. Services that are inappropriate to provide online
5. Legislative frameworks or implicationsThere are significant challenges for all courts and tribunals in their efforts to expand online services available to the public. To some extent this situation is recognised in the provisions of the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (ET Act) which exempts the practices and procedures of the AAT and other courts and tribunals from the provisions of that Act ( 2.2.13.4). These challenges include ensuring the strict privacy and confidentiality demanded by participants in legal proceedings and implementing online procedures which effectively take account of the linkages between lodgment of applications, payment or waiver of fees, timeframes for lodgment and delivery of decisions etc. 6. Implementation strategies and timeframesThe Tribunal is satisfied with the extent of online implementation available to its clients at this stage. The Tribunal is involved in ongoing discussions as a member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration (AIJA) Steering Committee on Technology Protocols. 7. Evaluation and Continuous improvementEvaluation strategies include the collection of web site statistics and the analysis and, where appropriate, the implementation of suggested improvements received from either online feedback or other media. 8. Approach to standards
9. Contact Details Manager, Corporate Support Ph: (02) 9391 2441 10. Web location of Online Action PlanThe AAT Online Action plan is available online at:
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