50 Years after the Ker..., Administrative Law, Freedom of Information 50 Years after the Ker..., Administrative Law, Freedom of Information

Buried at Sea: The Loss of our Freedom to Access Governmental Information

Geoffrey Watson SC

In the 1970s Australia was poised to move ahead of the world in allowing access to government information. Just before the federal election in 1972 the Australian Labor Party promised legislation for that purpose – but Mr Whitlam faced a hostile Senate and could not get the …

Read More
50 Years after the Ker..., Administrative Law, Comparative public law, Democracy, Freedom of Information, Judicial review 50 Years after the Ker..., Administrative Law, Comparative public law, Democracy, Freedom of Information, Judicial review

The Rise of Automated Decision-Making in the Administrative State: Are Kerr’s Institutions still ‘Fit for Purpose’?

Yee-Fui Ng

The Kerr Committee’s vision for a new administrative justice system led to the ground-breaking introduction of the ‘new administrative law’ package in the 1970s, incorporating the establishment of a generalist administrative tribunal, statutory judicial review, the office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, and later, in the 1980s, freedom of information …

Read More
50 Years after the Ker..., Administrative Law, Freedom of Information, Migration law 50 Years after the Ker..., Administrative Law, Freedom of Information, Migration law

Not “just another piece of material”: the value of Tribunal review

Chantal Bostock

As noted by colleagues, this blog series celebrates 50 years since the publication of the Kerr Report, which brought about great changes in Australian administrative law. In this blog post, I am going to try a new approach and attempt Eleanor Porter’s ‘glad game’, focusing on Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) ...

Read More