THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
THE PROJECT TV MELBOURNE
TUESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2019
SUBJECT: Liberal stacking of Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
CARRIE BICKMORE: But is this so-called stacking just business as usual for any party in power. We approached Attorney-General Christian Porter for comments. He declined an interview but provided a statement saying there's nothing wrong as long as the candidates are well-qualified, which very often is the case with respect to people who have been involved in politics and public administration. Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has been pushing for an overhaul of the tribunals appointments and he joins us now. Mark for people watching at home. Why does this matter?
MARK DREYFUS:This matters because the Administrative Appeals Tribunal is a very important tribunal that reviews the decisions of ministers and the decisions of senior public servants, and it's vital that people who are legally qualified, who have got deep experience in government and who are independent are appointed, so that it can be seen to be independent from government.
BICKMORE: What are some of the concerns I guess if its not as independent as it should be?
DREYFUS:If you've got a huge number of former Liberal Party Members of Parliament, failed Liberal candidates and former Liberal staffers, you won't have the appearance of independence in this tribunal. It'll look like it's been stacked. It'll look like it's just a taxpayer-funded gravy train for the Liberal Party. That's not what we need for an important tribunal like this.
BICKMORE: While the Attorney-Generals office says Labor does this too. Are you just as bad as them?
DREYFUS: Absolutely nonsense. I know he's been saying that for a while. In the six years of the Rudd and Gillard Governments there were two former Labor Members of Parliament appointed. One of them was the president of the Tribunal, Duncan Kerr and the then opposition congratulated that appointment. So that's a nonsense from Christian Porter. What's a real concern more than 60 former Liberal Members of Parliament, failed Liberal candidates and Liberal staffers have been appointed and that's never happened before.
WALEED ALY: Can you think of any examples where the appointment of these peoples to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has influenced the result?
DREYFUS: It's for others to do the analysis over time as to whether or not all of these Liberal connected appointments are leading to some discernible pattern of change in the Tribunal's decision making.
ALY: You say that the analysis is for other people. Isn't the analysis for you given that you're the one prosecuting the argument that this is compromising the independence of the Tribunal?
DREYFUS: I'm not the only one prosecuting the argument. There's many other people who have commented on this including the government's own review of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which was done by retired High Court judge Ian Callinan. He reported to the Government in December. His key recommendations were that the Government should only appoint people with legal qualifications and should appoint on merit. The government sat on that report while in their rush before the election, which they thought they were going to lose, they appointed at that point more than 50 of these Liberal connected people. Transparently, you are not appointing on merit if you've got that many former Liberal staffers, former Liberal candidates and former Liberal Members of Parliament.
BICKMORE: Well you can see the full Statement from the Attorney-General, Christian Porter on our website. Mark thank you so much for your time tonight.
DREYFUS:Thank you very much.
ENDS
