Administrative and Judicial Review Legislation Amendment Bill 2026
Submission Date: 15 July 2026
The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee (Committee) for the opportunity to provide a submission to its inquiry into the Administrative and Judicial Review Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 (AJRLA Bill).
At the outset, the Law Council acknowledges that the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) is experiencing high levels of applications for review, and that measures to ensure its efficiency are important in these circumstances. The Law Council appreciates that a range of practices need to be adopted to assist the ART to manage its continuing and large number of pending applications. To this end, the Law Council supports proposed measures in the Bill to:
- assign the President of the ART to every jurisdictional area;
- revise the means by which members of the ART are reappointed;
- provide for the classification of ART members to be changed from ongoing to sessional and vice versa;
- correct errors in orders of registrars (provided that its use does not extend to substantive errors that may require judicial review);
- clarify that parties can apply for leave to examine or cross-examine witnesses (provided there are safeguards to ensure applicants are able to exercise this right effectively); and
- change the method of notifying the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) of dismissal decisions.
However, the AJRLA Bill also continues an ongoing trend of reforms to the ART with concerning implications for procedural fairness and access to justice.1 This is particularly so for vulnerable and unrepresented migration applicants, in a jurisdiction that is already restrained by strict time limits, technical procedural requirements, significant demand for migration assistance services, and a high number of self-represented applicants.
The Law Council has become increasingly concerned by rushed legislative reform processes that have lacked adequate transparent public scrutiny. The Law Council’s 2025 Call to Parties observed that good law-making processes underpin the rule of law and democracy in this country and should not be taken for granted.2 That is why, in July 2025, the Law Council published a Best Practice Legislative Development Checklist (Checklist) to assist with evaluation of law-making processes.3
The AJRLA Bill also follows other legislative amendments that have been introduced less than two years into the ART’s operation,4 which the Law Council has previously observed were “without adequate public consultation or explanation as to why the ART’s demand-driven, sustainable funding model does not appear to be working as intended”.5
Consistent with the Checklist, the Law Council recommends further consultation be undertaken for the AJRLA Bill with adequate time provided for public consideration of its measures, their proposed rationale and their consequences. This would also help ensure that the measures promote the ART’s ability to achieve its objectives, including to provide a mechanism of review that is fair, just, accessible and responsive to diverse needs; that improves the transparency and quality of government decision-making; and that promotes public trust and confidence in its functions.6
In the limited time available, the Law Council has identified several issues for the Committee’s attention, as set out in this submission. The Law Council’s principal concerns with the Bill include:
- the expansion of powers for registrars to make orders that involve merits review assessments, such as when an application for review has no reasonable prospects of success;
- provisions to the effect that, when the ART gives an oral decision, written statements of reasons for decisions will only be provided at the request of a party to the application—especially in the migration jurisdiction;
- removal of the ART’s capacity to reconsider its own decisions; and
- the lack of detail in primary legislation about the identity verification processes in Part 12 of the AJRLA Bill.
1 See for example Law Council of Australia, Submission No 5 to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Administrative Review and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 (1 October 2025).
2 Law Council of Australia, ‘2025 Federal Election Call to Parties’ (Policy Statement, March 2025), 4.
3 Law Council of Australia, ‘Best Practice Legislative Development Checklist’ (July 2025).
4 See also, for example, the Administrative Review Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2026 (Cth).
5 Law Council of Australia, Submission No 5 to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Administrative Review and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 (1 October 2025) 2.
6 Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2025 (Cth) s 9.
Last Updated on 21/07/2026