Among the organisations that will become part of NCAT is the state’s Administrative Decisions Tribunal, whose president, judge Kevin O’Connor, welcomed the integration. The government has not yet decided whether the state’s Industrial Relations Commission – which has lost much of its jurisdiction to Fair Work Australia – will become part of NCAT.
NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said one of the strengths of the existing tribunals was that their panels contained experts from the community and the relevant professions. These specialist panels would form the backbone of NCAT. “The NSW model will be structured to preserve existing specialities rather than taking a one-size fits all approach”, Mr Smith said. “In this way, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal will be different from the super tribunals operating in Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT and we are hoping to learn from their experiences.” While some of the 23 constituent tribunals currently have no appeal mechanism, NCAT will have an internal appeal panel to enable quick reviews of most decisions.
The government plans to establish a steering committee to ensure NCAT begins operating in January 2014. That committee will take advice from tribunal members, users and professional associations. |
