Hale and Secretary, Department of Education and Training

This matter concerned an application by the Applicant for remission of her HECS HELP debt, arguing that "special circumstances" had made it impracticable for her to complete the requirements for two units of study. The Secretary, Department of Education and Training, was the respondent. The decision was made by B J Illingworth SM.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the Applicant's varying medical conditions, coupled with her partner's ill health, constituted "special circumstances" that made it impracticable for her to complete the requirements for her first and second units of study to a satisfactory standard. The Tribunal was required to interpret the meaning of "impracticable" in the context of the relevant legislation and guidelines.

The Tribunal accepted that the Applicant experienced periods of certified illness in relation to the first unit of study, which occurred after the census date and compromised her ability to undertake clinical placement and engage in study. However, the Tribunal was not persuaded that these short periods of ill health rendered the completion of the entire first unit of study impracticable, drawing on the meaning of "impracticable" as "not able to be done." The Tribunal also noted that the Applicant's evidence regarding her ill health was general and lacked detail, and was contradicted by substantial evidence of her general competence, including reports from a Registered Nurse and Clinical Facilitator, which indicated significant reasons for her failure to complete the unit unrelated to ill health. Regarding the second unit of study, the Tribunal weighed the Applicant's evidence about her health and her partner's health against the evidence from the University of South Australia School of Nursing and Midwifery. The Tribunal was not satisfied that special circumstances existed that met the statutory provisions, nor that it was impracticable for the Applicant to complete the units of study.

Accordingly, the Tribunal affirmed the decisions under review.