Hoolachan and National Disability Insurance Agency

This matter concerned an application by Ms Hoolachan to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of a decision made by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). The core of the dispute revolved around whether the AAT had jurisdiction to review the NDIA's decision, given the procedural steps that had or had not been taken by Ms Hoolachan.

The legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it possessed jurisdiction to review the NDIA's decision, specifically whether an internal review by the NDIA had been conducted as required before an application for review could be made to the Tribunal. The Tribunal was required to determine if the application was validly before it, or if it should be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

The Tribunal reasoned that its jurisdiction to review decisions under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Act is contingent on the decision being one that is subject to internal review by the NDIA, and that such an internal review has been sought or conducted. The NDIS Act, at section 103(1), permits applications to the Tribunal for review of decisions made under section 100(6) of the NDIS Act, which are internal review decisions. The evidence indicated that while Ms Hoolachan had made requests for internal review and a separate application for special circumstances, the NDIA had not yet completed an internal review of the decision to recover funds. The Tribunal noted that the NDIA had advised Ms Hoolachan of her right to request an internal review, and that the lodgement of a special circumstances application was a distinct process from an internal review request.

Consequently, the Tribunal found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the decision as an internal review had not been completed. The application was therefore dismissed pursuant to section 42A(4) of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth).