Law00117 study guide 2020 PDF

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LAW00117

Administrative Law

Study Guide Written by: Tom Round Incorporating material written by: Anne Schillmoller & Bruce Topperwien

scu.edu.au/law

WARNING This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of Southern Cross University in accordance with section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 (Act). The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further reproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Developed by Digital Resources

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Contents This Study Guide ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Topic 1 Introduction: The framework of Australian administrative law ......................................................................... 10 History The Prerogative Writs The new administrative law reforms Discretions vs Rules .......................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction: What is administrative law? .................................................................................................................................. 10

Topic 2 Judicial review .......................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Merits versus legality/procedure Facts versus law versus merits The constitutional separation of powers Public versus private decision-makers What decisions are reviewable under the ADJR Act? ................................................................................................................ 41 Introduction (CoGA p 285) ............................................................................................................................................................. 42 What decisions are reviewable under the ADJR Act? ................................................................................................................ 56

Topic 3 Natural justice/procedural fairness ................................................................................................................................. 74 When is it required? The hearing rule The rule against bias Legitimate expectation Private (domestic) bodies ................................................................................................................................................................ 74 Introduction (CoGA p 643) ............................................................................................................................................................. 74

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Topic 4 Statutory authorisation for decisions ............................................................................................................................ 85 Statutory interpretation and ‘state of mind’ clauses Jurisdictional facts Mandatory/invalidatory legislative clauses Bad faith Unauthorised purposes/motives (Ir)relevant considerations .............................................................................................................................................................. 85

Topic 5 Fettering discretion ................................................................................................................................................................ 94 Ministerial/Cabinet policy Following a policy inflexibly Acting under dictation Estoppel by previous promises Contracts ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 94

Topic 6 Judicial review for Unreasonableness and “No Evidence” ................................................................................. 101 Introduction (CoGA p 837) ........................................................................................................................................................... 101

Topic 7 Subordinate (delegated) legislation............................................................................................................................. 114 Role of subordinate (delegated) legislation Legal constraints Publication Disallowance ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 114 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 114

Topic 8 Judicial responses to unlawful government action .............................................................................................. 131 Consequences of unlawfulness: Void vs voidable Remedies Discretion to withhold or postpone a remedy Failure to carry out a legal duty Ouster clauses Constitutional writs ........................................................................................................................................................................ 131

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Topic 9 Merits appeals tribunals..................................................................................................................................................... 157 The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and other tribunals Powers and functions Interaction with judicial review.................................................................................................................................................... 157 Introduction (CoGA p 153) ........................................................................................................................................................... 157 Relevant provisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth)...................................................................... 173

Topic 10 Standing for judicial review and merits appeals .................................................................................................. 184 Rationales for standing (locus standi) as a threshold Common law tests for judicial review Statutory tests for judicial review Statutory tests for merits appeals Proposals for open standing .......................................................................................................................................................... 184 Introduction (CoGA p 1099) ......................................................................................................................................................... 184 Relevant provisions of the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth) .................................................... 193 Relevant provisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth)...................................................................... 193

Topic 11 Access to government information ........................................................................................................................... 194 Right to reasons Freedom of information Privacy laws....................................................................................................................................................................................... 194 Introduction – Reasons in Australian administrative law (CoGA p 1195) ......................................................................... 195

Topic 12 Other methods of governmental accountability ................................................................................................. 203 Ombudsman Human rights and anti-discrimination laws* Alternative dispute resolution*..................................................................................................................................................... 203

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This Study Guide This Study Guide is designed, as the name suggests, to ‘guide’ you, the student, through the subject matter of this unit in a systematic and structured way, using features such as hierarchical headings, margin notes and bold font to highlight key concepts and terms. It is intended as an active learning tool – that is, the learner is expected to be active while studying and to interact with the learning material. The Study Guide is written as a supplement to help students’ reading the prescribed textbook – Control of Government Action: Text, Cases and Commentary by Robin Creyke, Mathew Groves, John McMillan, and Mark Smyth (5th ed, Butterworths/LexisNexis, 2018) (‘CoGA’) – and not as a substitute for reading the prescribed textbook. To save pages, it does not set out to repeat, re-state, or summarise the textbook where the latter is clear and self-explanatory. Nor does it reproduce statutory provisions in full. Instead, it is structured on the assumption that students (1) will have read the relevant chapter(s) for each topic in the latest edition of the prescribed textbook, and (2) are capable of looking up and reading online the statutory provisions cited, eg at www.austlii.edu.au (http://www.austlii.edu.au/). Therefore, it focuses primarily on: a. telling students which parts of the textbook to read, and in what order (which may differ from the original order of the chapters); and b. adding explanations, illustrations, and updates where appropriate (and usually in less formal terms than the textbook. The lectures will be even less formal). Students should not assume that parts of the textbook with little or no commentary in this Study Guide are therefore less important. Where the textbook speaks plainly for itself, this Study Guide does not aim to echo it. Note: All citations in bold underlined text inside square brackets (eg, ‘[11.1.13E]’ etc) are references to materials reproduced in CoGA (E = an extract/reading, C = a case). It is assumed that the students taking LAW00117 will have previously completed the unit LAW00112 Constitutional Law at SCU or the equivalent subject at another university.

Footnoting Normal SCU Law School policy is that students’ assignments must follow the Melbourne University Law School method of citation – eg ‘Smith, n 10 above, p 20’. In this particular unit, students may use the Griffith University Law School’s method, where you cite by publication year instead – eg, ‘Smith (2011), p 20’. That way, you don’t need to go back and renumber every single time you insert, delete, or rearrange footnotes. This dispensation applies to this Unit only: don’t assume (without checking) that other Unit Assessors take the same approach.

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Government publications The following government reports can be accessed online free of charge and give valuable background to the historical genesis, purpose and operation of Australia’s administrative law system: Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Administrative Appeals Tribunal 2014–2015 Annual Report (https://www.aat.gov.au/AAT/media/AAT/Files/Reports/AR201415/AAT-Annual-Report-2014-15.pdf)

(AGPS, 2016). See in particular the case management chart (Figure 2.2, p 16). Administrative Review Council, Better Decisions: Review of Commonwealth Merits Review Tribunals (http://www.arc.ag.gov.au/Documents/ARC+REPORT+39.pdf) (AGPS, 1995) Report No 39, Chapters 2–3, pp 9–69. Administrative Review Council, Review of the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth): Statement of Reasons for Decisions (http://www.tinyurl.com/lhj74dl) (AGPS, 1991) Report No 33, pp 12–13. Administrative Review Council, Review of the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act: The Ambit of the Act (http://www.tinyurl.com/ARC1989ambit) (AGPS, 1989) Report No 32, pp 4–18. Administrative Review Council, Rule-Making by Commonwealth Agencies (http://www.tinyurl.com/lhj74dl) (AGPS, 1992) Report No 35, Ch 1, pp 4–11. Administrative Review Council, The Structure and Form of Social Security Appeals (http://www.arc.ag.gov.au/ Documents/Report+21.pdf) (AGPS, 1984) Report No 21, pp 27–29. Professor John McMillan, Research Paper 13 2000-01: Parliament and Administrative Law (http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/ rp0001/01RP13) (Parliamentary Library Research Publications – Politics and Public Administration

Group, (7 November 2000). Professor Dennis Pearce, The Commonwealth Ombudsman: Present Operation and Future Developments (http://www.tinyurl.com/pearce1990) (Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, 1990). In some cases, websites may change, or government bodies may be restructured, after the Study Guide is published. If, for example, the Study Guide directs students to click on ‘Making A Claim’ on the website for a court or tribunal, it is possible that by the time of reading this link may have been renamed (eg, to something like ‘How To Make A Claim’). Students should make allowance for changes in the wording and layout of web pages, and may need to exercise some judgment. Likewise, government departments and other agencies are often re-named, merged or split. Sometimes it is obvious which agency is the successor to one that is mentioned in the Study Guide, but where it is not, your Unit Assessor will provide students with guidance via MySCU.

Requesting special consideration 

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Requests for Special Exams must be emailed to the Head of School, c/of the Law School office: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]). Requests for extensions: 

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If you have a documented disability that is registered with the University – extension requests should be emailed (or, if urgent, texted) to the Unit Assessor. (Reason: Unit Assessors have access to information on their students’ disabilities, but the Student Advice Team don’t.) All other (ie, non-disability-based) extension requests should be emailed to the Student Advice Team on [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]). This Study Guide | 7

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Requests for Special Consideration in marking your exam or assignment (ie, if you’re not seeking extension or a Special Exam) should be emailed to the Unit Assessor.

All requests should be accompanied, or followed at the earliest opportunity, by documentation.

Reading drafts Students seeking assistance with their assignment-writing skills can make an appointment with the Academic Skills team (https://www.scu.edu.au/current-students/study-resources/academic-skills/studentappointments/), based in the University’s Centre for Teaching & Learning. Law School teaching staff (Unit Assessors, lecturers and tutors) are not permitted to look at, discuss, or give feedback about, individual students’ assignments before these are submitted. If students find some mistake or ambiguity in the assignment question itself, the Unit Assessor will amend the question to clarify it, and will notify all students generally. But teaching staff will not answer questions that would amount to telling specific students how to write their assignments.

Citing this Study Guide You can cite this Study Guide in assignments as follows: [In the bibliography:] Round T, LAW00117 Administrative Law Study Guide (2020), School of Law & Justice, Southern Cross University. [In the first footnote mention:] T Round, LAW00117 Administrative Law Study Guide (2020), School of Law & Justice, Southern Cross University, p ___. [In the second and any subsequent footnote mentions:] LAW00117 Study Guide (2020), p ___.

Legislation for this Unit You will be advised during the session which parts of the main administrative law-related Commonwealth Acts (Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975, Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977, Acts Interpretation Act 1901, Freedom of Information Act 1982, Judiciary Act 1903, Legislation Act 2003, Ombudsman Act 1976, and Privacy Act 1988) you may need to print out for the exam. Any substantive law (eg, a parent Act or Regulation) needed to answer an assignment or exam question will be given to you with the question. Sometimes this may be an excerpt from actual existing legislation. At other times, students will be given a fictitious, stylised Act, both (i) for brevity/ simplicity and (ii) to avoid advantaging any students who have worked (or who know people who have worked) with the actual existing legislation in that area.

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Students should beware assuming that cases involving real-life legislation are necessarily applicable to fictitious Acts. Eg, if you are provided with a simplified, made-up, ten-lines-long Control of Immigration Act 2025 (Cth) to use with a problem question, don’t assume that judicial interpretations of the real-life Migration Act 1958 (cth) will automatically apply. Some judgments will, but others may not, depending how differently the two statutes are worded. This means that scouring AustLII for cases on the real-life analogue (or phoning your friend who works at the Department of Immigration, to ask them for the ‘real’ answer) would be misplaced. LAW00117 aims to teach students administrative law; it does not expect students to also become experts on migration law, or social security law, or electoral law, or parole law, or the law of passports, or whatever substantive field the assignment and exam problem questions may cover. No inferences or assumptions as to the correct answer should be drawn from the names assigned to fictitious characters in problem questions. Eg, just because a character accused of drink-driving is named ‘Homer’, and has a wife called ‘Marge’, this is not intended as a clue that the allegation is necessarily accurate!.

Common abbreviations in this Study Guide AAT

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

AAT Act

Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth)

ADJR Act

Act Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth)

AIA

Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth)

AIAL

Australian Institute of Administrative Law

ALRC

Australian Law Reform Commission

ARC

Administrative Review Council

CoGA

Robin Creyke, Matthew Groves, John McMillan and Mark Smyth, Control of Government Action: Text, Cases and Commentary (5th ed, Butterworths/LexisNexis, 2018)

FOIA

Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)

JA

Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth)

LA

Legislation Act 2003 (Cth)

NCAT

NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal

OA

Ombudsman Act 1976 (Cth)

PA

Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)

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Topic 1

Introduction: The framework of Australian administrative law History The Prerogative Writs The new administrative law reforms Discretions vs Rules Overview and learning objectives Once you have completed this topic, you will be able to: 

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explain why universities teach administrative law as a separate unit/subject; give an overview of the central elements of administrative law, especially the ‘Five Pillars’ of the ‘New Administrative Law’; explain how Australia’s current system of administrative law historically evolved, beginning with the ‘prerogative writs’ in medieval England, and through the ‘New Administrative Law’ reforms of the 1970s; explain the basic Constitutional structure of the...