The long-awaited State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) will not be operational until at least early next year following a fourth extension on reporting for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Legislation.
The long-awaited State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) will not be operational until at least early next year following a fourth extension on reporting for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Legislation.
According to project director Andrew Marshall, the SAT bill is the biggest bill ever presented to the Western Australian parliament, and the committee needs more time to thoroughly scrutinise it.
The purpose of the bill is to establish a new tribunal, SAT, which will be a single overarching body, amalgamating numerous civil and administrative review tribunals, as well as court and ministerial appeal processes in Western Australia.
The reporting date for the bill has already been extended from November 2003, to December 2003, to April 2004, to June 2004, and now September 2004.
The SAT will be housed in 12 St Georges Terrace. Mr Marshall said many of the tribunals and boards that would become part of SAT were using the facilities while the bill was before parliament.
“There are 40 disciplinary boards that will be amalgamated under SAT, which include vets, doctors, lawyers, travel agents, hairdressers and so on,” he said.
“Eighty-five acts have administrative appeal capacities, which will also come under SAT, such as the Town Planning Appeal Tribunal.”
Mr Marshall said expressions of interest would be sought shortly for appointment to the tribunal.
“No appointments have been made yet because the legislation doesn’t exist, but Supreme Court Judge Michael Barker has been nominated by the chief justice to oversee the establishing of SAT,” he told WA Business News.
“It is proposed that one Supreme Court judge and two district court judges oversee the tribunal.
“There will be four senior full-time members, who are likely to be lawyers, and 10 ordinary full-time members, and then also 200 sessional members with various expertise.”
Critics of SAT argue that a tribunal run by judges will be run in a judicial fashion. This will make it more complex and time consuming, they say, where tribunals are supposed to be cheap, simple and quick.
Mr Marshall said the tribunal was not going to be judicial, and that process and procedure were being made simple enough.
“There is only one application form for the tribunal and an extensive online assistant package, which means that most people can go through the tribunal themselves. They do not have to have a lawyer,” he said.
“We are committed to making the procedure timely, and aim to have applicants appearing before a member within two weeks of their application for an interim hearing.
“There will be 16 rooms at the tribunal, which range from meeting rooms with just chairs and tables to hearing rooms, which are basically like a court room. There will be some big and important matters that will go through the tribunal.”