Berwick and Secretary, Department of Education and Training

This matter concerned an application by Mr Berwick to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) for a review of a decision made by Open Universities Australia (OUA) on 11 September 2017. The Secretary, Department of Education and Training, contended that the decision Mr Berwick sought to have reviewed was a composite of OUA's decision-making in response to his complaint, including correspondence dated 8 October 2015.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it possessed the jurisdiction to review Mr Berwick's application. This question hinged on whether the decision in question constituted a "reviewable decision" for the purposes of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HES Act), and whether it had been reconsidered in accordance with the relevant provisions of that Act.

The Tribunal considered the legislative framework, noting that under section 25 of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975, the Tribunal may review a decision only if an enactment provides for such a review. Section 212-1 of the HES Act permits applications for review of a "reviewable decision" that has been confirmed, varied, or set aside under sections 209-5 or 209-10, which deal with the reconsideration of reviewable decisions. A "reviewable decision" is defined in Schedule 1 of the HES Act by reference to a table in section 206-1. The Tribunal identified that the only potentially relevant decision listed in section 206-1 for Mr Berwick's situation was a refusal to re-credit a FEE-HELP balance under section 104-25(2) of the HES Act.

Ultimately, the Tribunal concluded that none of the decisions identified by the parties were reviewable by the Tribunal. Therefore, Mr Berwick's application was dismissed for want of jurisdiction.