BVT v Children's Guardian (No 2)

The case of BVT v Children's Guardian (No 2) involved an application for an enabling order under the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012. The applicants, BVT, sought to have their case reheard by different members of the Tribunal after their initial application was refused. The application was heard by the Supreme Court of Victoria, which had previously allowed an appeal on the basis of an error of law. The Supreme Court did not, however, make any order regarding the constitution of the Tribunal to rehear the application.

The legal issues before the court were whether an apprehension of bias was present in the original hearing of the case and whether the matter should be heard by different members of the Tribunal if no apprehension of bias was found. The applicants argued that the Tribunal's members were biased due to their prior involvement in similar cases, while the Children's Guardian maintained that no bias was present and that the matter could be heard by the same Tribunal members.

The court found that no apprehension of bias was present and that the matter could be heard by the named members of the Tribunal, subject to their availability. The court noted that the applicants had not provided any evidence to support their claim of bias, and that the Tribunal's members had acted impartially in their previous decisions. The court also noted that the Supreme Court had not made any order regarding the constitution of the Tribunal to rehear the application, and that it was therefore up to the Tribunal to determine the composition of the panel. The court concluded that the matter could be heard by the same Tribunal members, provided they were available to do so.

The court's final order was that the application filed on 6 October 2016 for the proceedings to be heard by a Tribunal member other than Senior Member M Anderson and General Member O'Halloran was refused. The matter may proceed before the Tribunal with the named members, subject to their availability.