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The AAT publishes statements of reasons for our decisions to promote public trust and confidence in our decision-making and the transparency of our operations.

AAT decisions with written reasons are published on the AustLII website and may also be available from other legal publishers.

You can browse published decisions on the AustLII website by some of the most commonly reviewed matter types:


What decisions does the AAT publish?

From 27 November 2017, the AAT publishes decisions with written reasons in accordance with our Publication of Decisions Policy. We have increased the number and range of decisions we publish.

We generally publish all decisions with written reasons made in the following divisions:

  • Freedom of Information Division
  • General Division
  • National Disability Insurance Scheme Division
  • Security Division
  • Small Business Taxation Division
  • Taxation & Commercial Division
  • Veteran's Appeals Division

We publish a selection of decisions with written reasons made in our other divisions:

  • Migration & Refugee Division – all decisions made in some categories of cases and a randomly selected percentage of decisions in other categories, and
  • Social Services & Child Support Division – a randomly selected percentage of child support decisions.

Decisions with written reasons are not published if a law or a Tribunal order prohibits their publication.

Refer to the policy for more information about which decisions will be published. We review the policy each year and make further adjustments as necessary.

If the Tribunal has made a decision and given reasons for the decision orally, the decision and reasons may be published if the Tribunal prepares a written statement of reasons at the request of a party or otherwise.

Decisions or other orders made by the Tribunal without written reasons are not published.

Decision Summaries for a selection of decisions from 2018-23 are also available.


Are decisions with written reasons published in full?

Many decisions with written reasons are published in full, but not all decisions.

The AAT must not publish information if its disclosure is prohibited or restricted by law. For example, published decisions in most child support cases and all cases about protection (refugee) visas must not include names or other details which may identify the applicant and some other people. The AAT can also direct in individual cases that information not be published. Decisions are prepared for publication to comply with these requirements.

If you are concerned about information that has been, or might be, published in a decision, you can apply to us not to publish some information or the entire decision. Write to us stating what you want kept confidential and why. If we are satisfied there is a good reason, the AAT can decide to:

  • edit a decision to remove information  
  • not publish a decision, or
  • recall a published decision.

Former tribunals’ decisions

On 1 July 2015, the Migration Review Tribunal, Refugee Review Tribunal and Social Security Appeals Tribunal were merged with the AAT.

Published decisions of these former tribunals are available on the AustLII website: