Martindale ACF Pty Ltd and Chief Executive Officer, Australian Aged Care Quality Agency

This matter concerned an appeal by Martindale ACF Pty Ltd against a decision by the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency to revoke the accreditation of a nursing home. The appeal was brought before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) for review of the CEO's decision.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine the point in time to which it should address itself when reviewing the CEO's decision to revoke accreditation. Specifically, the Tribunal was required to consider whether the decision to revoke accreditation possessed a temporal element, and consequently, whether evidence of matters occurring after the date of the CEO's decision was relevant to its review.

The Tribunal, applying the principles established in *Shi v Migration Agents Registration Authority* [2008] HCA 31, held that its task was not to determine whether the primary decision-maker's decision was correct or preferable based on the material before them at the time. Instead, the Tribunal's role was to determine whether the decision was correct or preferable based on the material before the Tribunal at the time of its review. The High Court in *Shi* emphasised that, unless the governing legislation provides a statutory basis for confining the review to circumstances existing at the time of the initial decision, the Tribunal's reviewable material will include information about conduct and events that occurred after the decision under review. The Tribunal found no such statutory limitation in the relevant legislation governing aged care accreditation.