A long-serving member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has resigned, apparently in reaction to the government’s extreme politicisation of the tribunal which has seen dozens of Liberal politicians and staffers parachuted into highly paid jobs over the years the Coalition has been in office.
Crikey understands that on Friday last week Adelaide-based AAT member Jennifer Strathearn circulated an email to all AAT staff informing them that she had sent her resignation to the governor-general that day.
Strathearn has been with the AAT since 2015, when the government amalgamated it with two other tribunals, and worked in the social services division which reviews decisions made by agencies such as Centrelink. Before that she had been a member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal.
Strathearn “noted” the Senate committee’s recommendations and having “observed events since then” had decided to resign. Her appointment was due to expire in 2024.
Strathearn sent her email after lunch on Friday. It said that she had read the report of the Senate committee which had reviewed the operations of the AAT. (The report of the committee, which was chaired by Labor Senator Kim Carr, was published a week beforehand and detailed how deeply corrupted the appointments process had become.)
As Crikey reported last week a key recommendation of the Senate committee was that the AAT be “disassembled” and rebuilt from the ground up, such was the reputational damage after years of the government ransacking it to look after its political friends using taxpayers’ money.
Strathearn’s stand came at the end of a week in which Attorney-General Michaelia Cash announced that a new batch of former Liberal MPs and staffers would be appointed to the tribunal and that a number of existing members — including many Liberal friends — would be promoted or have their terms extended. The announcement came a week before Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election.
Among those to have their terms extended is Karen Synon, a former Liberal senator who was made a deputy president of the AAT on an annual salary of $500,000 by then attorney-general Christian Porter at the end of 2020. Synon is responsible for the social services division. As Crikey reported, Synon had publicly supported Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s election campaign for the Liberal seat of Kooyong in 2019, apparently in breach of the AAT’s code of conduct on displays of political partiality.
At the beginning of the month Cash also announced the appointment of a new AAT president after Justice David Thomas departed. That person is Brisbane-based Fiona Meagher, who has the job of implementing changes to the AAT which were recommended by former High Court justice Ian Callinan QC more than three years ago. Given that Meagher is Callinan’s daughter, that promises to be a delicate operation.
The AAT confirmed Strathearn’s resignation as a part-time member of the tribunal, effective at the end of April.
If you have information on this story, please write to Investigations editor David Hardaker at dhardaker@protonmail.com
