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Amendments to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997





Amendments to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 commenced on 1 January 2009

A summary of the amendments


The Explanatory Notes from the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Amendment Bill 2008 as introduced into Parliament provide an overview of the amendments.

The objects of this Bill are as follows:

(a) to amend the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 (the Principal Act) so as:

1. to give effect to certain recommendations made as a consequence of a review carried out under section 147 of the Principal Act (the statutory review), and
2. to make other amendments in connection with the constitution, functions and procedure of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (the Tribunal) and in the nature of statute law revision,

(b) to make consequential and other amendments in the nature of law revision to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (General) Regulation 2004 and Administrative Decisions Tribunal Rules (Transitional) Regulation 1998,

(c) to repeal the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Legislation Further Amendment Act 1998 and Administrative Decisions Tribunal Rules (Transitional) Regulation 1998,

(d) to amend the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977:

1. to increase the maximum amount that the Tribunal may award under that Act as compensatory damages from $40,000 to $100,000, and
2. to enable the President of the Anti-Discrimination Board (instead of the Minister) to grant exemptions from the operation of that Act and to enable applications to be made to the Tribunal for reviews of such exemption decisions, and
3. to omit certain procedural provisions relating to the Tribunal that duplicate procedural provisions already contained in the Principal Act,

(e) to amend the Building Professionals Act 2005 to remove any right to appeal certain decisions of the Tribunal to an Appeal Panel and to provide instead for such appeals to be made directly to the Supreme Court,

(f) to amend the Anti-Discrimination Regulation 2004 and the Explosives Act 2003 to make amendments that are consequential on the amendment of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 and the Principal Act,

(g) to amend the Supreme Court Act 1970 to assign to the Court of Appeal any appeals from decisions of an Appeal Panel of the Tribunal and the referral of questions of law by the Tribunal for the Supreme Court’s opinion.

(a) the joinder of persons who are not parties to proceedings in the Tribunal,

(b) the continued participation of members or assessors of the Tribunal who preside over unsuccessful preliminary conferences for proceedings in the formal determination of the proceedings,

(c) the powers of the Registrar of the Tribunal with respect to the issue of a summons to attend and give evidence or produce documents or other things and the granting of access to things produced pursuant to such a summons,

(d) the expansion of the circumstances to which the Tribunal may have regard in awarding costs in proceedings before it,

(e) the simplification of the process for the making of the rules of the Tribunal by its Rule Committee.