Report 27 - Access to Administrative Review: Stage One Notification of Decisions and Rights of Review 1986

Access to Administrative Review: Stage One Notification of Decisions and Rights of Review, 1986

Summary of the report

The report was transmitted to the Government on 11 September 1986, and was tabled in the Parliament on 3 June 1987.

The report set out the Council's views on notification of administrative decisions and rights of review in respect of those decisions. It contains five recommendations, the fifth being for a Code of Practice for administrators in relation to notification of decisions and rights of review. The Council recommended that the Code be endorsed by the Government, and that it be followed by all government agencies. The Code indicated the persons who ought to be notified of decisions, and of rights of review attaching to those decisions. It also laid down principles concerning:

• the form of notices,
• the content of notices,
• the staging of notices in areas where decisions are reviewable on their merits by a person or body prior to any appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ('AAT'), and
• the use of plain English in notices.

Response to the report

The Council's recommendations were substantially implemented in the Law and Justice Legislation Amendment Act (No. 3) 1992. The amendments inserted sections 27A & 27B into the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975. The former requires the notification of rights of review for all decisions that might ultimately come before the AAT. The latter provides for the making of a Code of Practice by the Attorney-General for the purpose of facilitating the operation of the notification scheme. The Code of Practice and amendments to the AAT Act came into operation on 11 June 1993.