“It is easy to see a hard swing in the composition of the membership away from the diverse profile of decision makers appointed by the previous government towards a more homogenous one,” Dragovic wrote in his submission.
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“Some may applaud this as righting a past wrong,but while opinions may differ on the Coalition’s approach to appointments,the data shows substantial improvements and impressive outcomes through this period that aligns with an increased diversity of membership.”
Reforming the tribunal is a key plank in Labor’s agenda to weed out cronyism,which it argues wasrampant under previous Coalition governments and spurred the creation of the first national anti-corruption agency,which was central to Labor’s 2022 election pitch.
A spokesman for Dreyfus pledged the AAT’s successor would appoint people based on merit and attacked the opposition for “using it as a Liberal Party employment agency,appointing at least 85 of their mates to cushy,very highly paid,secure jobs”.
Dragovic wants to reduce Dreyfus’ influence in the recruitment of new members by substituting an independent community member for a panel member picked by Dreyfus,whose vision for reforming the tribunal was panned by Leeser in a speech last month.
Leeser,whoquit his role as shadow attorney-general this week over the opposition’s stance on the Voice to parliament,invoked Stalin,George Orwell’sNineteen Eighty-Fourand former Chinese president Hu Jintao as he argued against the changes,and cited data showing the AAT had out-performed benchmarks on the number of decisions it published and user satisfaction.
Julian Leeser said in a speech last month the AAT had out-performed benchmarks on decision numbers and user satisfaction.Credit:Brooke Mitchell
“The Attorney (Dreyfus) is like Stalin’s henchman,Lavrenty Beria,who says,‘You find me the man I’ll find you the crime’,” Leeser said in a March 7 speech,and also described Labor’s approach as a McCarthyist purge.
“He doesn’t care whether the people he is targeting are qualified or not. What he really wants is a supine tribunal that will rubber stamp the decisions of the Labor Party.”
The AAT had 128 full-time members,172 part-time members and 11 judges as of June 30 and many could be paid out parts of their salaries if they are not appointed to the new body.
The AAT had 67,720 cases awaiting finalisation as of the middle of last year. The government has allocated $63.4 million to hire 75 members to address the backlog of cases as the new body is established.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley.Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.