CPAC Residential Pty Ltd and Australian Securities and Investments Commission

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered a dispute between CPAC Residential Pty Ltd (CPAC) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). CPAC sought to challenge ASIC's decision to register a Form 504 notice concerning the appointment of receivers to property owned by CPAC. CPAC contended that the appointment of the receivers was invalid and that ASIC should not have accepted and recorded the notice on its register.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether ASIC's act of registering the Form 504 notice constituted a "reviewable decision" for the purposes of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (AAT Act). CPAC argued that ASIC's uncritical acceptance and recording of the information amounted to a decision to "do an act or thing" within the broad definition of "decision" in the AAT Act. ASIC, conversely, argued that the registration of the notice was merely an administrative step and not a substantive determination that could be reviewed by the Tribunal.

Deputy President Bernard J McCabe P applied the principles established in *Australian Broadcasting Tribunal v Bond* (1990), which held that a reviewable decision must be a substantive determination, rather than a preliminary step in a process. His Honour noted that the AAT does not have a general power to review administrative processes or maladministration. The Tribunal's jurisdiction is limited to reviewing specific decisions designated as reviewable by statute. In this instance, the act of registering a notice on a register was not considered a substantive determination of the validity of the receiver's appointment, but rather a procedural step.

Consequently, the Tribunal found that it did not have jurisdiction to review ASIC's decision to register the Form 504 notice. The application for review was therefore dismissed. CPAC was advised that any challenge to the validity of the receiver's appointment should be pursued in a court of competent jurisdiction.