The pressure is on for both applicants and tribunal members to help ensure that migration and refugee review cases are dealt with quickly.

Last month, AAT President Duncan Kerr warned that “Without sufficient numbers of members being appointed to the new Social Services, Child Support and Migration Review Divisions of the AAT, the work required in those divisions will suffer delayed hearing and backlogs.”

In a move to help clear the backlog of cases in the migration and refugee division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), the AAT’s President has issued practice directions to encourage quicker decisions.

The President’s directions on Conducting Migration and Refugee Reviews ‘encourage’ members and staff of the tribunal ‘to facilitate accessible, fair, just, economical, informal, quick and proportionate conduct’ of cases.

The directions specifically encourage oral decisions where possible but require that a record of the decision and reasons must be subsequently issued to both the applicant and the DIBP.

The President’s directions on Prioritising Cases in the Migration and Refugee Division intend to ensure consistency and fairness in the AAT’s approach to the prioritisation of cases in the division. It sets out how cases will be given priority hearing. In essences, cases involving persons in detention and those on the AATs jurisdiction take top priority followed by visa cancellation cases, protection visa cases, and those remitted by the courts to the AAT or determined to have compelling reasons for priority. Generally, all other cases will be heard according to the date of lodgement.

The direction sets out that cases attracting media, public or ministerial interest do not automatically ensure the granting of priority unless they have been assessed to have compelling reasons to be given priority.

The President also issued directions for applicants and representatives in which it states that "by following the requirements of this Direction, applicants and representatives (you) can ensure efficient and comprehensive consideration of the applicant’s claims and assist in the fair, just, economical, informal, quick and proportionate conduct of reviews."