JWVH and National Disability Insurance Agency

The proceeding before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) involved JWVH, an applicant with borderline personality disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). The core dispute concerned the identification of supports to be included in JWVH's NDIS plan, a matter that had been ongoing for approximately 19 months since the application was lodged in April 2020. JWVH, acting as a litigant in person, had been unable to specify the supports she sought.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether it should grant JWVH's request to invite the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to intervene in the proceeding, and how to address the significant procedural difficulty preventing the application from progressing to a substantive hearing. JWVH contended that the NDIA and a government department had breached her human rights and subjected her to disability discrimination and victimisation, arguing that the AHRC should intervene pursuant to section 11(1)(o) of the *Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986* (Cth). The NDIA opposed this request, asserting that the application for review before the Tribunal did not necessitate the determination of human rights issues and that any such complaints could be made separately to the AHRC.

The Tribunal decided not to grant JWVH's request for the AHRC to intervene. It reasoned that an application for review before the AAT under the *National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013* (Cth) does not inherently require the determination of human rights issues, and that the AHRC's power to intervene under section 11(1)(o) of the *Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986* (Cth) is contingent on the proceedings involving a human rights issue. To overcome the procedural impasse, the Tribunal made procedural directions, attached as an annexure, to timetable the application for a substantive hearing in May 2022 and to establish an alternative process for identifying the disputed supports.