Hacker News Reader

Comment by peytoncasper | Hacker News Reader

Interesting. I’m not from Australia but I thought the concept of an Administrative Appeals Tribunal interesting. It seems like a way to offload work from the main court system. According to Wikipedia it also does seem to have oversight by the Federal Court of Australia. [1]

While I agree that this seems like a massive overstep. The actual body seems similar to the FISA court in the US. There wasn’t any detail in the article but I would hope there is a massive audit trail on the ability to modify data or impersonate someone online.

Anyone have any additional details on the AAT’s effect on the average Australian citizen?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_Appeals_Tribuna...

View on HN

Not to directly answer your question, but my trust of "the system" in general is severely shaken by recent cases involving the treatment of whistleblowers.

Australia's powers-that-be seem to be promoting a chilling effect on any revelations that may cause negative publicity about said powers-that-be.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/10/witne...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-29/prosecutors-proceed-c...

The AAT is basically what’s known as an administrative court in other countries [1], or a consolidation of the numerous tribunals presided over by administrative law judges in the U.S. [2]. The average person in Australia is most likely to interact with the AAT by appealing a decision of the federal government in relation to child support, workers’ compensation, social security, immigration or tax [3]. Although the distinction between an AAT member and a judge is constitutionally important, it is not that obvious or practically significant. Both conduct public hearings and provide written reasons for deciding the legal disputes within their jurisdiction, which can be further appealed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_court

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_law_judge

[3] https://www.aat.gov.au/about-the-aat

Really appreciate the detailed answer @sjy! That makes sense, so it seems odd to me that this article is claiming this is effectively "warrantless". Functionally, it sounds like law enforcement still have to present their case to a judge and then there is a path for recourse on behalf of the citizen.

>The actual body seems similar to the FISA court in the US.

This is your daily reminder that FISA was originally created as a way to provide oversight for intelligence agencies after things like MK Ultra and COINTELPRO. Instead it became a rubber stamp legitimizing their actions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com