Merits review is where an independent person or body, like the Administrative Review Tribunal (Tribunal) reviews a decision made by a Commonwealth agency. This is a fundamental part of the Commonwealth administrative law framework and our responsibility towards our customers.
We recognise that reviewing and learning from Tribunal decisions helps us strengthen the quality, consistency, transparency and fairness of agency decisions.
Our agency has committed to a legal review of all decisions changed by the Tribunal to consider their impact on our policies and the legislation we administer.
Where our agency uses technology as part of this review, we will do this in line with our Automation and Artificial Intelligence Transparency Statement and Automation and AI Strategy where relevant.
Our agency will:
- learn from Tribunal decisions
- identify areas for improvement in our decision making
- use feedback loops to share key insights and inform future policy and legislative reform.
These commitments build on the strong foundations we already have in place to put customers first, by responding to their needs and helping them understand decisions and outcomes.
This is part of delivering simple, helpful, respectful and transparent government services to our customers in line with our 2030 Vision.