Australian Immigration Daily News

Just in from the MRT-RRT:

June 2014 – COMMUNITY LIAISON UPDATE

Dear Community Liaison Network members

I am pleased to provide the community liaison update for June 2014. I welcome any feedback you would like to provide about these updates and ask that any suggestions or comments are forwarded to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Follow-up from April and May 2014 meetings

Thank you to everyone who attended our community liaison meetings around the country during April and May 2014. For those of you who were unable to attend, some of the topics discussed included MRT and RRT caseload reports, withdrawal of the Immigration Advice and Application Assistance Scheme (IAAAS) and member recruitment.  Legislation updates included functus officio provisions, changes to protection visa processing, requirements for student visas and English language requirements of 457 visas and nominations.

Minutes will be uploaded on the community liaison section of our website after they have been reviewed by attendees.  These meetings are a valuable opportunity to discuss current issues, and to obtain your feedback and suggestions. We are working through the suggestions raised at the recent meetings, some of which will feed into new or improved practices.

Caseload report to 31 May 2014

The tribunals passed the 22,000 decision mark in May 2014, and are ahead of decisions made last year by some 3,000 cases. This is encouraging news for our applicants who are seeing waiting times across many categories reduced.

The tribunals’ active caseload continues to decline as a result of lower lodgements and high decision rates in MRT cases. The active caseload is down by around 3,000 cases since the same time last year and down by around 2,300 cases since 30 June 2013.  Caseload statistics for the financial year to 31 May 2014 are now available on the Statistics and caseload summaries page of our website.

Tribunals’ amalgamation

On 13 May 2014 the Government announced that effective 1 July 2015, the Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal will be amalgamated with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Social Security Appeals Tribunal and the Classification Review Board.

This amalgamation is part of the Government’s overall aim to attain greater efficiencies in the Australian Public Service and to provide a single body for external merits review. The overall objective of providing merits review that is fair, just, economical, informal and quick will remain. The reforms are expected to generate efficiencies and savings through shared financial, human resources, information technology and governance arrangements. 

During this time of change, the tribunals will operate business as usual and will continue to provide independent, expert review of migration and refugee decisions that is efficient and accessible.

Senate Estimates

On Monday, 26 May 2014 the tribunals' Executive and I travelled to Canberra for Senate Estimates and appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitution Affairs. The tribunals were questioned on the forthcoming amalgamation, our current caseload and RRT set aside rates. The Deputy Principal Member and I also visited the offices of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to speak with graduates on the role of the tribunals and to discuss with senior staff the provision by DFAT of country information reports for consideration in protection visa cases.

Website video project

Video content, contributed to by members, staff and stakeholders, is currently being developed for the tribunals’ website. The videos, which provide essential information about the application process, will assist applicants to better understand how the tribunals operate.  Filming occurred on 13 and 14 June 2014 in Melbourne.

Functus officio legislation

The Migration Amendment Bill 2013, which specifies when the tribunals are functus officio, has passed the Parliament and received Royal Assent. The Bill amends the Migration Act 1958 to clarify that a decision on review is taken to be made on the day and at the time when a record of it is made.

The Act states that a decision (other than an oral decision) is taken to be made by the making of the written statement on the date and time the written statement is made.  An oral decision is taken to be made, and notified to the applicant, on the date and time the decision is given orally.

New application for review forms

From 1 July 2014 only the versions of the M1, M2 and R1 application forms which were released on 12 March 2014 may be used to lodge applications.  These forms are accessible on our Forms page.  Printouts of applications generated by the tribunals' online application system are not affected and remain valid.

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.