Australian Immigration Daily News

Migration Alliance is in receipt of the following email from the MRT-RRT:

December 2013 – COMMUNITY LIAISON UPDATE

Dear Community Liaison Network members

Season’s greetings! Welcome to the final MRT-RRT Community Liaison update for 2013.

I welcome any feedback you would like to provide about these updates. If you have any suggestions or comments, please forward them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Follow-up from November & December 2013 meetings

Thank you to everyone who attended our community liaison meetings around the country during November and December. For those of you who were unable to attend, topics covered included MRT and RRT caseload reports, an introduction to our new online lodgement facility (more information is included below) and the RRT Practice Direction. These meetings are a valuable opportunity to discuss the issues that arise from time to time, as well as to get your feedback about the tribunals. We are working through the suggestions raised at the recent meetings, some of which will feed into new or improved practices. Minutes from each meeting are being sent out to attendees for review and will then be uploaded on the community liaison section of our website.

Christmas - New Year closure arrangements

The offices of the Migration Review Tribunal and the Refugee Review Tribunal (the tribunals) will be closed over the Christmas and New Year period. Offices will close from 5:00pm on Tuesday, 24 December 2013 and will reopen from 8:30am on Thursday, 2 January 2014.

Applications for review or any responses to correspondence or any other matters which have a due date or deadline on one of the days on which the offices are closed, can be lodged or provided on Thursday, 2 January 2014 and no later than that date.

Fax facilities will remain operational during the period. Please note that applications for review can be lodged by fax, however the tribunals cannot currently accept applications lodged by email.

Caseload report

Caseload statistics for November 2013 are now available on the Statistics and caseload summaries page of our website. A total of 10,076 decisions were made to the end of November, ahead of the pro rata target of 10,000. Pleasingly the active caseload has reduced by 1,214 (or 6%) to 18,213 this financial year.

MRT-RRT 2012-13 Annual Report

The tribunals’ 2012-13 Annual Report was presented to Parliament on 11 November 2013. The report is available on the Forms and publications page of the tribunals’ website. My Principal Member’s report highlights significant issues and developments; factors influencing the tribunals’ performance; and the outlook for 2013-14 (pages 3-4). The performance report section in Part 3 provides a snapshot of key information and statistics (pages 14-33). Additional caseload statistics can be found in Appendix A (page 108).

Migration practitioners in particular may be interested to note the summaries of some notable judicial decisions which have had an impact on the tribunals’ decision making or procedures, or on the operation of judicial review in relation to tribunal decisions (pages 24-26). There are also case studies included which provide some insight into the range of matters that come before the tribunals (pages 33-39).

Notice regarding valid application forms

From 1 December 2013, only the July 2013 version of the MRT and RRT application forms will be accepted. Previous versions of the forms will not be accepted. The form for MRT applicants not in immigration detention is form M1. The form for MRT applicants in immigration detention is form M2.  The form for all RRT applicants is form R1.

The version of the application form can be seen in the bottom left hand corner of the application form.

Providing documents prior to hearings

A reminder to migration agents representing applicants, at both standard and at multi applicant hearing lists (MAHLs), to provide any additional documents or information they wish to rely on during the hearing by the date specified in the hearing invitation where possible. In some cases it is possible to set aside a decision on the papers if documents are provided before the hearing.

Online Lodgement of Applications

Applicants and their representatives will soon have the option to lodge their applications electronically. This first phase of the project will focus on allowing users to lodge new MRT and RRT applications and to pay the MRT fee online. This will offer our clients an additional option for lodging tribunal applications, and I am sure many will prefer the convenience of lodging with us online. Future development will expand the services available online, such as electronic information exchange with clients.

Senate Estimates Hearing

On Tuesday, 19 November 2013 the Registrar, Deputy Principal Member and I appeared before the Senate Committee’s Supplementary Budget Estimates hearing in Canberra. These hearings are an opportunity for Senators to question the Executive on how the tribunals are operating. This time Senators asked questions about our UMA and RRT caseloads, member remuneration, the new arrangements for APS recruitment, and how complementary protection is applied. We will next appear at Senate Estimates in February 2014.

Tribunals’ ceasing to send statutory letters by registered post from 16 December 2013

The Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal will cease sending statutory letters by registered post from 16 December 2013. From this date, any statutory letter (such as an invitation to attend a hearing, a letter inviting comment on or response to adverse information, or a decision notification letter) that is sent by post will be sent by standard post. Registered post will continue to be used to return original or official documents issued by government agencies to addresses located in Australia.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your contribution to the tribunals’ operations in the past 12 months. On behalf of the members and staff at the tribunals, I wish you and your families a very happy and safe Christmas and look forward to continuing to work with you in the New Year.
 

Kind regards,

Kay Ransome

Principal Member

If you have any queries or feedback please contact us.

For further information about the MRT-RRT, please visit our website.