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Simple Wins / Australian Red Tape Every step, every clock, every authority -- written down.

Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)

Reviews Commonwealth administrative decisions on the merits

Replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 14 October 2024. Reviews decisions on the merits across many portfolios; migration and the NDIS are the two largest caseloads.

Responsibilities

Operates under

The single largest queue in this database, and the clearest case anywhere in it of a backlog that is a symptom rather than a disease.

Published position as at 31 May 2026: an on-hand caseload of 130,983 applications, growing at roughly 30,000 cases a year more than it can clear. More than 77,000 applications received in the reporting year. Median time to finalise has risen from 45 weeks five years ago, with only 43 per cent of applications finalised within twelve months. NDIS applicants commonly wait about a year for a hearing.

Two portfolios dominate: migration and the NDIS.

And here is the number that matters more than all the others. In 2025-26, 64 per cent of NDIS cases before the Tribunal resulted in a changed outcome, against 73 per cent in 2024-25.

Set aside for a moment whether those changes were right. A review body that changes the outcome in roughly two of every three contested cases is not primarily a backlog problem. It is a measurement of the quality of the decision being reviewed. Every one of those cases is an applicant who waited a year to be told the original answer was wrong, and a Commonwealth agency that spent the year defending it.

This database usually asks how to make a step faster. Here the question is different and better: what would have to change upstream for two-thirds of these cases never to arrive? See Empty the tribunal from the top, not the bottom.

The improvement from 73 to 64 per cent is worth noting and worth watching. It is also worth noting that a 64 per cent change rate would be considered a crisis in almost any other decision-making system.

Where this body appears in a process

Every point at which Administrative Review Tribunal can hold something up, and why.

ProcessStepWhy it waitsClockTypical
Contest a Commonwealth decision at the Administrative Review Tribunal Lodge the application application applicant — 14
Contest a Commonwealth decision at the Administrative Review Tribunal Wait for allocation and case management assessment queue — 240
Contest a Commonwealth decision at the Administrative Review Tribunal Case conference and attempted resolution assessment scheduling — 60
Contest a Commonwealth decision at the Administrative Review Tribunal Hearing assessment scheduling — 60
Contest a Commonwealth decision at the Administrative Review Tribunal Decision decision assessment — 60
Family with a Child Care Subsidy debt after balancing Review by the Administrative Review Tribunal appeal queue — 365
Veteran lodges a compensation claim and receives a determination Review by the Administrative Review Tribunal appeal queue — 365
Person seeks restoration and compensation after a wrongly cancelled payment Review by the Administrative Review Tribunal appeal queue — 365
Person with disability from access request to first funded support Application to the Administrative Review Tribunal appeal queue — 365
Employer sponsors a skilled worker — Skills in Demand visa Application to the Administrative Review Tribunal appeal queue — 365
International student obtains a visa and commences study Review of a refusal appeal queue — 365