Hearing on the Administrative and Judicial Review Legislation Amendment Bill 2026
5 August 2026
On 27 July 2026, the Law Council appeared before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee’s inquiry into the Administrative and Judicial Review Legislation Amendment Bill 2026. The Law Council’s submission had expressed concerns about a number of measures included in the Bill and their implications for procedural fairness and access to justice, particularly for vulnerable and unrepresented migration applicants.
Those measures include proposals to expand the powers of registrars of the ART to make orders to dismiss an application, including on the basis that it has no reasonable prospects of success; to accommodate a Christmas shutdown period for agencies but not applicants; to permit ART members to give oral decisions in migration cases and only provide statements of reasons at the request of a party to the review; and to introduce new requirements for identity verification procedures, the details of which would be left to regulations. The Law Council also observed that only a short timeframe was provided for consideration of the Bill and referred the Committee to its Best Practice Legislative Development Checklist.
The Law Council was represented by President Tania Wolff, Co-Chair of the Migration Law Committee Carina Ford, Administrative Law Committee member Robim Creyke, and Senior Policy Lawyer Alan Freckelton. The Law Council acknowledged the pressures faced by ART but argued that efficiency gains should not take precedence over procedural fairness for applicants. In particular, we expressed concern about the lack of available detail on proposed identity verification procedures, and the fact that registrars rather than members would be called upon to make subjective judgements about whether an application has any prospects of success. The Committee asked questions about whether the Law Council could support oral decisions being given in immigration matters if the time to seek judicial review commenced when the applicant received a statement of written reasons rather than the date of the oral decision, the role of registrars at the ART, whether registrars have the appropriate training and experience to make decisions relating to the merits of an application.
Last Updated on 05/08/2026