Latest batch of AAT appointments … Christmas delivery from The Christian … A few lawyers and plenty of the faithful included … A notable deputy president goes missing  

Tubby Callinan’s daughter Fiona Meagher moved up the rungs to become a deputy president and head of the division handling the national disability insurance scheme. 

She is a competent and well-regarded member of the AAT, but might we ask when is the government going to respond to Tub’s review of the tribunal, which was tabled in parliament in July 2019? 

Karen Synon, another worthy member, becomes a new deputy president and divisional head of the social services and child support division. 

Karen is from the bowels of the Victorian Liberal Party and did an unelected stint in the senate filling Jim Short’s vacancy. 

Our information is that in her expression of interest submission she did not nominate for the deputy president, divisional head job – nor was she interviewed for the role. 

She had applied, we believe, to be promoted to a senior member position in the migration and refugee division. There was some jostling over the placement between Social Services Minister Anne Ruston and the Pantsman. 

Synon is thick with Vic Liberal apparatchiks Michael Kroger and Peter Costello, so it’s possible she had Josh Frydenberg in her corner. In her first speech in the red chamber on September 3, 1997, she waxed enthusiastically about the two former political chums: 

“Michael Kroger’s term as President of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party is legendary, and his enthusiasm and optimism transformed the party. Of course, back in the 1970s, Michael teamed with Peter Costello, who is clearly the most outstanding political figure of his generation in the parliament – and I am delighted that the Treasurer is here today.”

De Costa previously worked for Liberal ministers Helen (Casino) Coonan and Daryl (Rowdy) Williams; Dougall was on the staff of Don Page, a NSW politician from Cockies’ Corner; Gibbs is ex-Immigration Department and works for a firm of immigration lawyers in the Pantsman’s home town of Perth; and Prentice is a deselected federal LNP member from Queensland who went out of parliament complaining about “treachery and lies” and people who pursue a political career to fulfil personal ambition. 

Goodness me. 

Among the new part-time members we find: 

One noticeable name absent from the list was the reappointment of the Federal Court’s John Logan, a deputy and acting president of the AAT, whose tribunal term expired on November 23, 2020. 

In 2017 Logan fell fowl of the hacks at Murdoch’s Melbourne Herald Sun, who reported that the judge  had “thwarted immigration minister Peter Dutton by again saving sex creep Jagdeep Singh from deportation – but the battle isn’t over”.   

The Indian born taxi driver had pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a passenger. However, Logan had not overturned the minister at all. He had determined that the applicant get a bridging visa so he could arrange his voluntary departure from Australia. 

AAT member Miriam Holmes overturned the original decision of the delegate to deport Singh after receiving psychological evidence. 

Benito Dutton set aside Holmes’ decision and it was then Singh applied and was granted a limited bridging visa. 

Justice Logan said at the time: 

“Any member [of the tribunal] who allowed himself or herself to be persuaded as to an outcome by partisan or political rhetoric by a minister, any other administrator or the popular press would be unworthy of the trust and confidence placed in him or her.” 

We had the story here. 

The minister subsequently cancelled the visa and was cheered on by a stenographer at The Hun taking dictation from Benito’s office: 

“Mr Dutton is ideally placed to have a role in shaping what the AAT of the future looks like.” 

Consequently, Holmes is no longer a member of the tribunal and nor is Logan – although no one could blame him if he didn’t want to be reappointed. 

In some matters, including taxation cases, part of a dispute can be heard in the Federal Court and part in the AAT. Federal Court judges who are deputy presidents of the tribunal can straddle this work and are known as “double-hatters”. 

One lawyer who was in a double-hatter heating before Logan, says the case had to be vacated because the judge was not reappointed. 

So much for “shaping what the future of the AAT looks like”.