Another top flight management executive leaves the AAT … Staff attrition … Morale and harmony unravelled by political picks … Review of selection process … Accountability … Polly Peck reports 

Chief corporate officer Jacqueline Fredman is the latest top level executive to decamp from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. 

She follows the departure in January of president David Thomas and Sian Leathem the tribunal’s registrar. 

Justice Thomas, ex-Minter Ellison Brisbane, is also president of the outfit that runs Ekka at the exhibition showgrounds. He is deputy chairman of the Queensland Ballet and a big wheel in the Anglican Church. He recently had a serious car accident. 

Sian Leathem got into strife in Senate estimates after attempting to keep the productivity of tribunal members under wraps, on the grounds of preventing reputational damage and “misinformed commentary”. 

This was urged at the pleading of divisional heads and was not something that the registrar actively supported. Even so, it had been revealed last year that in 2020-21 one full-time deputy president on a wicket of $496,560 had finalised only 21 applications, against an average of 131 finalisations. 

Some of the full-time ordinary tribunal members were only finalising between three and five cases in the same year. Ordinary full-timers are on salaries of up to $250,000 and the normal average annual finalisation rate for these members was 177 cases. 

Over-wrought bullying in senate estimates, especially by Senator Sarah Henderson (Lib. Vic.), no doubt assisted Leathem’s decision to quit. 

She is now at NDIS as the complaints commissioner.

It also emerged late last year, that answers provided to the senate by the AAT had been altered on at least five occasions by attorney general Porter’s office and on several occasions the tribunal had no idea of the final version of its “answers”. 

We’re told not to be surprised by this.

Fredman was the AAT’s executive director of corporate services and previously had been a divisional registrar. She has been at the tribunal for about seven years. 

At the moment, tribunal insiders are not expecting Elizabeth Connolly, the executive director of registry operations for the last six years, to return from long-term leave. 

It means the AAT’s executive ranks will have turned over almost 100 percent in the last two years.

The AAT’s senior executive is down to five people: 

The problems can be attributed significantly to the appointment by rorting attorneys general, specifically Brandis and Porter, of individuals they expect would achieve political outcomes, yet did not possess the necessary qualifications, experience or smarts. 

We have spoken to staff who say they would “roll their eyes” at the appointment of every new batch of party hacks on lavish salaries, many of who proved incapable of addressing the workload. 

It’s also felt that the amalgamated tribunal structure has not worked as a harmonious whole, and the legislation is unhelpful in seeking to achieve that end. 

Senior people have departed expressing disgust at this government’s concerted efforts to corrupt the administrative appeals system. 

Nowhere can we find the government’s response to Tubby Callinan’s review, which was tabled over two years ago.  

There’s a senate committee looking into the performance and integrity of Australia’s administrative review system – including the selection process for AAT members. A report is due at the end of this month. 

Unlike the deputy presidents and members, the staff has to be appointed on merit – public servants many of who are well credentialled lawyers. 

Some of the tribunal members quickly develop inflated views, regarding themselves as “judges”, requiring an attendant suite of associates and maid servants. 

They’ve lost sight of the fact that the AAT is an informal administrative review system, not a high-stakes court. 

Members with obvious conflicts should have been sent down pronto – including former Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic, a senior member on $300,000, for his party political social media posts; and Tony Barry, a former Liberal staffer for his lobbying consultancy work. 

Others are up to their own self-indulgent tricks, which leave staff appalled. Little wonder there is “reputational” concern.